


Figure Swimming

by JackieWepps



Category: Free!, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Communication, Communication Failure, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-10-25 19:31:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 30,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10770945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieWepps/pseuds/JackieWepps
Summary: What is the perfect mix between swimming and figure skating?When traveling in through Hasetsu, Nagisa and Rei run into some foreign guy, whom they learn is a figure skater. They talk for a bit, and suddenly someone gets a really good idea.





	1. Sightseeing

”Come on Rei-chan!” Nagisa exclaimed, dragging Rei along down the street with the shops on either side in Hasetsu.

“Wait up, Nagisa-kun!” Rei yelled as he stumbled ahead, behind Nagisa.

They were currently on a trip. Nagisa’s parents had arranged it. It was a trip all around Kyushu and Hasetsu was just a stop on the way. They were only staying here for three days. The reason why Rei was with them was because neither of Nagisa’s sisters had wanted to come along and so Nagisa’s parents had asked if Nagisa knew someone who would come along. Then Nagisa had gone to ask Rei if he wanted to come along, because he thought they got along well and he knew that Rei wasn’t going to do anything anyway during the Golden Week. So that was why both Nagisa and Rei were now walking through the streets of Hasetsu.

“Nagisa-kun, isn’t that Hasetsu Castle?” Rei asked, directing Nagisa’s attention towards a tall, formidable building.

“We are going there tomorrow, Rei-chan, I want to see the actual town today!” Nagisa said.

“Weren’t we supposed to go skating tomorrow too?” Rei asked. He remembered this because he had found it odd that Nagisa’s parents would want to go skating this late in spring, while it was so hot. It seemed very misplaced to him.

“Yeah, they said that,” Nagisa said, smiling. “Mom says the figure skater representing Japan comes from this town.” As he explained the dry facts, his voice sounded slightly duller. It didn’t really interest him much.

“I don’t look very beautiful on skates…” Rei muttered.

“That’s why it’s going to be a lot of fun, Rei-chan,” Nagisa dismissed Rei’s small complaint.

As they fell silent, they walked by a foreign guy who was standing in front of a ramen stall and trying to take a selfie in front of it. Just as Nagisa and Rei passed him, he called out to them, to their surprise, he spoke fairly decent Japanese.

“Hey! Does one of you want to take a picture of me with the entire sign?” He asked.

Nagisa turned around. “Rei-chan would love to,” he declared. “Can I be on it too?” he asked.

“Wha- Why do I have to take the photo?” Rei asked.

“Because you’re Rei-chan,” Nagisa reasoned.

While Nagisa and Rei were discussing, the stranger was thinking about if he wanted to have Nagisa on his photo or not. He ended up making up his mind as they were done talking.

“You can be on the photo,” he said. “I just want the sign too,”

So Rei ended up taking the photo while Nagisa and the foreign guy stood with an arm wrapped around each other’s shoulders, leaving room for the sign.

“Are you here on vacation?” Nagisa asked the stranger once the photo was taken.

“Yeah, I’m visiting a friend who lives here,” the foreigner replied. “Do you two live here?”

“No, we’re just on a trip, we live further up north,” Nagisa answered without bothering to specify the location.

“I’m from Thailand,” the foreigner said. “My name is Phichit Chulanont. You just call me Phichit.”

“I’m Nagisa and that’s Rei,” Nagisa introduced himself and Rei, leaving out the –chan, to Rei’s huge relief.

“So, you are from Thailand and have a Japanese friend?” Rei asked.

“Yup,” Phichit nodded his head, confirming that fact. “Katsuki Yuuri,” he said.

Nagisa and Rei exchanged slightly confused looks. From the way Phichit spoke, it felt like they were supposed to know this Katsuki Yuuri.

“Where did you meet him then?” Nagisa asked, slightly curious.

“We’re both figure skaters, skating on an international level,” Phichit explained.

“So you are figure skaters? Rei-chan and I are swimmers,” Nagisa said.

“Do you guys know how to skate?” Phichit asked.

“I used to skate some when I was younger,” Nagisa replied. “But back then, I used to slip a lot on the ice, but that was the fun part.”

“I don’t skate,” Rei replied. “To have me on the ice would not be beautiful at all!”

“Everyone starts somewhere,” Phichit said.

“But you are competing internationally, so you’re really good, right?” Nagisa asked.

“I was the first Thai skater to make it to the Grand Prix Final!” Phichit answered with pride in his voice. “I didn’t win; I didn’t even make it to the podium. But I don’t think I did badly.”

“You must be good,” Rei concluded.

“Thanks,” Phichit smiled. “Want to see?”

“Are you gonna show us?” Nagisa asked, thinking that Phichit would perform for them.

“It’s just a video from the Grand Prix final. I think I’d like to show you my free program,” Phichit said. “Let’s buy some food too.”

And so the three of them bought some ramen at the stall and sat down together. Phichit found a video on his phone and handed the object to Rei and Nagisa who both watched the screen closely. It didn’t take long for the two to get captivated by the performance

“Beautiful…” Rei mumbled once it was done and he handed the phone back to Phichit.

“Then you should see the others too. Everyone made a performance on that level or higher,” Phichit said.

“I want to see your friend then,” Nagisa said.

“Yuuri?” Phichit asked before he went to find Yuuri’s free program. It wasn’t long before Rei and Nagisa sat with Phichit’s phone once more, this time watching Yuuri on the ice.

“Rei-chan,” Nagisa said once the program had finished and Rei was handing Phichit’s phone back. “Don’t we have something similar to that in swimming… Figure swimming or something?”

“Synchronized swimming, actually. Why are you suddenly thinking about that?” Rei asked.

“Is that what you do?” Phichit asked.

“No, we just swim normally,” Nagisa answered. “I just thought it would be interesting to do a combination of figure skating and swimming, that being figure swimming,”

“Synchronized swimming,” Rei corrected.

“That sounds interesting,” Phichit said.

“Really?” Nagisa smiled happily. “Want to do it with us?” he asked.

“Us?” Rei asked, confused.

“You’re gonna do it with me, Rei-chan,” Nagisa explained, causing a reluctant expression to appear on Rei’s face. “Anyways, do you want to swim with us?”

Phichit thought. “I have a lot of training to do, but maybe, if we could?”

“But don’t we need a choreography and more swimmers?” Rei asked.

Nagisa thought. “We do,” he decided. “Phi-chan, do you know someone who can do the choreography?”

“Yuuri’s coach might want to,” Phichit said with a thoughtful expression. “I could ask?” he suggested.

“Do that,” Nagisa said. “How about finding someone who can join us too?”

“Are we seriously doing this?” Rei asked.

“I wanna try it out!” Nagisa declared.

“Me too,” Phichit said. “I’ll see if I can find a few. How many would we need?” he asked.

“If it’s me and Rei-chan, Haru-chan and Mako-chan and…” Nagisa turned to Rei. “Do you think Rin-chan would want to do it too?”

“How would I know?” Rei asked.

“Five swimmers and five figure skaters if possible,” Nagisa decided.

“Aren’t you being optimistic?” Rei asked. “No one said Haruka-senpai, Makoto-senpai or Rin-san would join.”

“It involves water, so Haru-chan will do it and Mako-chan goes wherever Haru-chan goes, and I’m sure we could convince Rin-chan somehow,” Nagisa said.

“How do I get other people to join this idea?” Phichit asked.

“I don’t know…” Nagisa said. “Use something they like to convince them, that’s what I do normally,” he smirked as he said this.

Phichit thought. “That might work,” he said.

It was then Nagisa’s phone started ringing and he answered it. What met him was the sound of his mother’s irritated voice. Nagisa and Rei had to come to the hotel because they had to decide where they were gonna go out to eat tonight.

After Nagisa hung up, he quickly exchanged contact information with Phichit and then hurried off, dragging Rei along behind him.


	2. Approval

It was the following day. Nagisa and Rei were called up early to have breakfast. After that, they and Nagisa’s parents went to Hasetsu Castle where they were until lunch time. Then they went to town to eat before they went to the local skating rink to go skating.

“This is not going to go well at all…” Rei complained as they were on their way.

“It’ll be fine, Rei-chan, you just have to focus on keeping your balance,” Nagisa said.

“You’re not that good on skates either, are you, Nagisa?” Nagisa’s father asked in a slightly amused tone.

“When was the last time I saw you on skates?” Nagisa’s mother wondered.

“I think it was while we were in Hokkaido for New Year’s around ten years ago?” Nagisa said. “The others dragged me out on the ice.”

“You did fall a lot,” Nagisa’s father said.

“He only fell once, and hit his head so hard we had to take him to the hospital,” Nagisa’s mother said. She was speaking in a tone as cold as ice.

“What? Really?” Nagisa asked.

“I suddenly feel like turning the other way,” Rei commented in a mutter.

“Don’t worry, it was that one time. Nagisa was both inexperienced and careless.” Nagisa’s father tried calming Rei down.

“That is true. Just skate with care and adjust to the ice. Don’t go too fast right away. If you just do that, then you should be fine, Rei-kun,” Nagisa’s mother said.

The advice somewhat helped. Rei felt a little more calm as they reached the skating rink and entered. There was on one inside aside from the woman at the desk.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said as she saw them. “We are actually closed for another hour,” she said.

“Why?” Nagisa’s mother asked, slightly curious.

“Well… the rink has been reserved until then,” the woman said.

“By that figure skater?” Nagisa’s father looked at Nagisa’s mother.

“Katsuki Yuuri?” Nagisa’s mother asked.

“Katsuki Yuuri?” Nagisa asked. “Rei-chan, wasn’t that Phichit’s friend?”

“Didn’t Phichit just call him Yuuri?” Rei asked. “I don’t think he ever stated his surname.”

“Uh… I don’t remember,” Nagisa said, giving up on trying to recall the conversation from the day before.

The doors to the entrance opened once more and someone came rushing in.

“Are they done?” the person who had just entered asked.

“There’s still another hour left of the practice if you want to join,” the woman said.

“Ah! What a relief!” The person said, and it was then Nagisa and Rei turned around to look at him. Both were surprised when they recognized the Thai boy whom they had just been talking about.

“Phichit-san?” Rei asked.

It was only then Phichit noticed them as well and he smiled. “Rei, Nagisa,” he said, recognizing them.

“Nagisa, you didn’t give up your full name to a stranger did you?” Nagisa’s mother asked in a strict tone.

“No, I only gave up my first name,” Nagisa replied before turning back to Phichit. “Your friend is that figure skater representing Japan?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Phichit replied happily. “As I said yesterday, his name is Katsuki Yuuri. I thought you knew whom I was talking about!”

“Not all people keep up with figure skating,” Rei said.

“Hold on a minute,” the woman said. “You know those two, Phichit?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Phichit replied. “We met in town yesterday.”

“Could we watch Katsuki-san practice?” Nagisa’s mother asked.

“Watch both of us skate!” Phichit said. “And bring skates of your own.”

He waited for them until they were all ready to walk in with him. Rei, Nagisa, Nagisa’s parents and Phichit all put on their skates before heading in to stand by the rink where a figure skater was currently practicing his next short program. A little away from the entrance, the coach was watching with a soft smile on his lips. The coach turned his head as they entered and waved while placing a finger on his lips, signaling for all of them not to make a single noise. He didn’t seem to mind that Phichit had brought a group of strangers. So that was why no one said a word and barely dared to move a muscle until the music finished and the skater stopped moving.

“That was amazing Yuuri!” the coach exclaimed.

“Beau-beautiful!” Rei muttered while wiping a stray tear from the corner of his right eye.

“It’ll be a challenge next time we compete,” Phichit said.

“Huh, Phichit-kun?” Yuuri asked, turning his head to look at Phichit, and then he saw the people the Thai boy had brought with him. “What did you bring them for?” he asked.

“Remember those guys I met yesterday whom I talked with about figure swimming?” Phichit asked.

“It’s called synchronized swimming,” Yuuri corrected while skating across the rink to leave it.

“That’s what I said, Nagisa-kun,” Rei said, irritated.

“Minor detail,” Nagisa replied.

“Anyways, these are the ones, Rei and Nagisa,” Phichit presented Rei and Nagisa to the Japanese figure skater and his Russian coach.

“Ah, nice to meet you,” the coach walked over. “I’m Viktor Nikiforov, Yuuri’s coach and the one Phichit asked to make a choreography.” He introduced himself.

“But Viktor, you don’t even know how synchronized swimming works, do you?” Yuuri asked. He had now left the ice and was walking up to them.

“It should be fine. I know the way they score is the same as in figure skating and the rest can be found on the internet.” Viktor smiled without showing a single worry about the small lack of knowledge he had.

“None of us know anything about synchronized swimming, so we should all study up on it,” Rei said.

“We probably should. By the way, I’m Katsuki Yuuri,” Yuuri introduced himself. “Who are you?”

“I’m Hazuki Nagisa and that’s Ryugazaki Rei,” Nagisa introduced himself and Rei. While they were talking, Nagisa’s parents withdrew themselves to give them some space.

“And you two were going to participate along with three more?” Viktor asked.

“Yeah,” Nagisa said. “And Phi-chan and Yuu-chan with three other figure skaters if possible.”

“Yuu-chan?” Yuuri muttered in a questioning way.

“Nagisa-kun, they’re still strangers…” Rei whispered, concerned.

“Hmm…” Viktor thought about the matter Nagisa had spoken of just before. “Finding more figure skaters shouldn’t be the biggest problem.” He said.

“Who would you ask?” Yuuri wondered.

“Yurio seems like a good choice, wouldn’t you say?” Viktor asked. “I’m sure, if we just ask, there are someone who will want to join us.”

“But we are all busy with training,” Yuuri said.

“We’ll just find some time when everyone can come,” Nagisa said. “Rei-chan and I have school too.”

“Are you two still in high school?” Yuuri asked, slightly shocked. “Then shouldn’t you be focusing on studying?”

“We’re on break now, we can also just plan this to take place during our summer break in August.” Nagisa argued.

“In August sound good,” Viktor said. “I should be able to find people, study up and make a choreography by then.” He then stopped to think. “But where would be an ideal place to do it?” he asked with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Rei-chan and I have almost free access to the pool at our school. If we can get Haru-chan and Mako-chan to go along with the idea there shouldn’t be any problems in us using that.”

“The school we are attending is located in the town Iwatobi in the prefecture Tottori.” Rei explained. “But Nagisa-kun, I don’t think there are any hotels in town.”

“They can just stay at Haru-chan’s place,” Nagisa decided without thinking.

Yuuri walked up to Rei and leaned in closer to whisper something. “Is he always like that?” he asked.

“Pretty much,” Rei whispered back.

“Then it’s settled. We will be at Iwatobi station on August 1st, as early as possible,” Viktor said, and with that, it was decided that five swimmers and five figure skaters would combine their talents to perform the art of synchronized swimming.


	3. Email Exchange

“I still don’t think you’ll find anyone who is willing to take the time out of their training schedule for this,” Yuuri said while he and Viktor were relaxing in the hot spring one evening. It had been a few weeks since they had agreed to do the synchronized swimming with Nagisa and Rei. Phichit had gone back to Thailand only a few days after that and now it was just Yuuri and Viktor again.

“Unless you try you don’t know if it’s possible or not,” Viktor replied. Yuuri hadn’t specified the topic of the conversation, but Viktor did know what he was talking about anyway.

“I’m not even doing this willingly you know,” Yuuri said.

“But you will do it,” Viktor stated.

Yuuri nodded his head. Of course he would. He had no other choice but to go along with this idea. There were a few reasons for this. One of them was the fact that Viktor was in on it and that meant practicing anything was completely out of the question while Viktor was gone. Another reason was that Yuuri didn’t think Nagisa and Rei had the slightest idea of what they had gotten themselves into in regards of inviting foreigners to Japan to do something they weren’t comfortable with. They would need someone who could act as a communication-way between them and being in the position he was, Yuuri saw himself as the ideal person to fill in that role.

Yuuri turned in the water to allow his arms to rest on the rock directly behind him before he went to rest his head on his arms.

“Have you thought of anyone to ask besides me and Phichit-kun?” Yuuri asked, not looking at Viktor.

“Hmm…” Viktor seemed to think. “I still think we should ask Yurio. It shouldn’t be that difficult to convince him to join us. Aside from that… I think we should pick some of the better figure skaters because they are more likely to have mastered the elements of the sport.”

“Who would that be then?” Yuuri asked.

“JJ and Chris are fairly good, but Chris might be a little too old to adjust to it, so I won’t ask him unless I don’t have a choice,” Viktor said.

“That doesn’t sound bad actually… but who else would you invite?” Yuuri asked.

“I don’t know,” Viktor declared. “I should probably write to Yurio though since we are going to invite him.” With these words, Viktor stood up and left the water to go back and get dressed. Yuuri stayed in the water for a bit longer, still wishing that he wasn’t going to be involved in this.

* * *

 

It was later that same week when Viktor got a response from Yurio. The answer was, as Yuuri had expected, an ice cold ‘NO!’. He gave several reasons. He didn’t want to take the time out of his training regimen to go to Japan and do something that may look like figure skating but certainly wasn’t, and on that note was a complete waste of time. Furthermore if he were to do it, he certainly didn’t want to do it with a bunch of amateurs who had no flexibility. What would he gain from this anyway, he asked.

Viktor showed the response to Yuuri, asking for help with figuring out what to reply back and how to convince Yurio to join them.

“I thought you said you had an idea,” Yuuri said while reading the email. He had absolutely no idea of how to convince Yurio to join them, the primary reason being that he completely agreed with his points and if it hadn’t been for himself not having a choice in the matter, he probably have given a similar response.

“I only said it wasn’t going to be difficult,” Viktor protested.

“Shouldn’t that mean you had some kind of idea?” Yuuri asked while thinking about the matter.

“I couldn’t find out anything once I read the response,” Viktor said.

Yuuri didn’t respond now. He was in deep thoughts, nearly arriving at an answer. “You could ask him if he would join if we asked someone else to join and they agreed, like a specific person?”

“Like that hero from Kazakhstan who kidnapped the fairy from Russia?” Viktor asked.

“What?” Yuuri asked, confused.

“Nothing,” Viktor replied before he started writing on his reply to Yurio, offering a handful of things that may or may not make him join them. Yuuri left him while he was writing, and therefore he didn’t see as Viktor sent another email. In both the emails he sent there was a small lie.

* * *

 

By the end of the week Viktor had gotten the response he needed and he came to Yuuri with a bright smile on his face while holding his phone up victoriously, showing the emails he had received.

“Yuuri!” Viktor exclaimed, claiming Yuuri’s attention.

Yuuri turned his head to look up at Viktor. He wasn’t entirely sure if he should be curious or pretend not to care so the expression he ended up wearing looked like a hilarious mix between the two.

“Yuuri, we only need one more to have five people in our group!” Viktor said as he put his phone in Yuuri’s hand, forcing him to take a look at the display.

“What?” Yuuri asked. Then he took a look at the screen. As it turned out, the first mail was from Yurio. Yuuri read it with continuously widening eyes. Yurio had completely changed his view on the situation, sure he still didn’t think it was a good idea to quit training for a project like this but since Otabek Altin was coming, it was fine. When Yuuri looked at what Viktor had written beforehand, he saw that he had promised that Otabek would come and also informed Yurio that training his flexibility and balance in water would increase his level of balance on the ice. Yuuri wasn’t sure if the last was entirely true, but it worked well as bate.

He then looked at the other email Viktor had received. This one was from Otabek. He decided to read Viktor’s email to him first. In this, the pattern was the same. There was an introduction to the event, where and when it would take place, pros and cons and then Viktor had written that Yuri Plisetsky would be there and wanted Otabek to come as well. When Yuuri read the response, he wasn’t surprised to see that Otabek agreed to come. Also he had taken the bate.

“You do realize that your plan would have fallen if one of them declined, right?” Yuuri asked.

“I know,” Viktor replied. “But the other party wouldn’t need to know that detail.”

No matter which party that was, Yuuri was pretty sure that either one of them would be pissed off if they got here and figured out they had been lied to. They probably would figure that out either way. But at least now they were four figure skaters participating and Viktor was happy.

“You were planning on asking JJ too?” Yuuri asked.

Viktor nodded his head. “I’m thinking of a way to convince him and his coaches.”

Yuuri sighed, handing Viktor’s phone back to him, praying that he would be left out of the rest of this work. But as he was about to leave, he remembered something.

“Do you have Hazuki-kun’s email?” he asked.

“We did exchange emails, why?” Viktor asked.

“Tell him that he and his team should start practicing their flexibility, probably through ballet or something like that, if possible,” Yuuri answered.

“You’re right, Yuuri,” Viktor agreed. “It would be best if we weren’t starting off from scratch. Besides, didn’t Yurio mention something about flexibility in his first reply?” he asked.

Yuuri nodded his head. It was actually that reply that had made him think of this in the first place. Without uttering another word, Yuuri left while Viktor was preparing to write an email to Nagisa about what he and Yuuri had just talked about.


	4. Preparations

There were a lot of people in the sports shop, Nagisa and Rei realized. There was only one week until their summer break began and Yuuri, Phichit and the others would come. That was why Nagisa and Rei were currently out looking for equipment, anything they would need.

“Do you even know what’s required?” Rei asked as he followed Nagisa around in the swimsuit section.

“Swimming-caps and nose-clips,” Nagisa replied. “We need five of the former and ten of the latter.” He was currently looking for both.

“How about swimsuits?” Rei asked.

“Don’t anybody at least own a swimsuit?” Nagisa asked. “And in case they don’t, I don’t mind letting them borrow some of mine.”

Rei suddenly wished that he was able to warn the other participants beforehand, even if he didn’t know them yet, he didn’t want to see them wear one of very little charming swimsuits in Nagisa’s collection. But of course, it would be stupid of them to think that this expense would be covered. As Nagisa said, most people did own a swimsuit.

They walked around for a bit. Nagisa managed to find the swimming-caps after only a few minutes of looking.

“Do you think we’ll need to buy goggles too?” he asked while looking at the goggles that were located right next to the swimming-caps.

“I don’t think it’s something everybody has…” Rei said. He went to take a look at the price-tag to figure out how much they cost and make his decision based on that. “It looks a bit expensive,” he said.

“Nose-clips and swimming-caps aren’t cheap either,” Nagisa pointed out while looking at the price-tag for the swimming-caps one more time.

“That’s true,” Rei nodded his head. “But unlike goggles, those are something we know they don’t have.”

“You’re right, Rei-chan,” Nagisa said. “Then we’re not buying them.” He determined this before walking on to look for the nose-clips.

As they were walking, they started discussing the email Nagisa had received from Viktor a while back, regarding a training regimen to make their bodies more flexible as they were able to move more gracefully in the water.

“When should we get started on the flexibility training?” Rei asked.

Nagisa thought. “Tomorrow I think… Maybe just the day before, I don’t know…”

“Nagisa-kun, you might be overestimating our bodies,” Rei commented. “I would have started when we got the email.”

“Maybe we should’ve…” Nagisa said. “I just don’t think it’s that important, how can it be?”

“It is very important!” Rei protested.

Nagisa shrugged. “Anyways, how strong do you think those figure skaters are?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Rei asked.

“Their physical ability. I read up on it and some level of physical ability is required to perform synchronized swimming,” Nagisa said.

“You have finally learned to say it right,” Rei sighed. “That may be true. Perhaps we should tell them to start working on strengthening their bodies further,” he said. “Both Yuuri-san and Phichit-san looked rather delicate,” he said.

“So, should I tell Vik-chan to tell them that?” Nagisa asked.

“Vik-chan?” Rei wondered before he shook his head to get the nickname out. “Probably. They told us to work on flexibility so we could just tell them to work on strength.” He said.

Nagisa smiled as he caught sight of something slightly behind Rei.

“There!” he exclaimed and went past Rei. As Rei spun around to see what Nagisa was up to, he saw his classmate victoriously holding up a nose-clip. They had finally found them.

* * *

 

The sun was beaming down on them as they stood by the fence, practicing ballet positions. Today was Sunday so it wasn’t like anyone would come and tell them that they were supposed to be doing club activities. No one could comment on Rin being with them either.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” Rin said as he practiced keeping his leg straight in a perpendicular position to the rest of his body.

“I didn’t even expect you to agree to this,” Makoto said. He was standing right next to Rin, in the same position.

Haruka, who was standing on Makoto’s other side, wasn’t saying a word but anyone could read the longing look he sent the pool every now and then.

“I think we all want to dive in the pool about now,” Makoto said with a slightly amused smile as he noticed Haruka’s longing expression and the glances towards the pool.

“I really still don’t get why we need to do this,” Rin said.

“Nagisa apparently planned this with some figure skaters while being in Fukuoka,” Makoto said. “He just asked me and Haru to do it. As soon as he mentioned that Haru would get to spend all summer in the pool, he agreed.”

“And you just followed Haru, right?” Rin asked.

“I didn’t just agree because Haru agreed,” Makoto said, smiling. “I also thought that they need someone to keep everything in balance. I don’t know how good I am at that, but I don’t think the others are gonna try so…” Makoto gave a sheepish smile as he finished his reasoning.

Rin nodded his head, thinking that Makoto had no idea of how great a job he did with keeping everything in balance.

“Nagisa-kun, when are we done with the regimen?” Rei asked. He was sounding exhausted. He was tired from all this ballet practice too. They had been going at this for hours, or so it seemed at least.

Nagisa, who was standing at a distance, but still next to Rei, looked at the program Viktor had sent him. Then he looked up before placing his leg back on the ground.

“We’re done now. All that’s left is stretching.” He answered.

With relieved expressions, everyone placed their outstretched leg back on the ground and started imitating Nagisa as he stretched.

“When would they be here again?” Makoto asked while they were stretching.

“In about a week,” Rei replied. “The planned stay was about a month, if I recall.”

“That’s a lot of time considering they are figure skating on an international level,” Makoto said. “Shouldn’t they be focusing on their own practice?”

“I think the same, but apparently they have the time,” Rei said.

“Maybe there’s something in it for them?” Nagisa suggested.

“What’s in it for us?” Rin asked.

“International connection, better feel with the water…” Nagisa trailed off while thinking about what other benefits synchronized swimming would have for them.

“The feel of the water only applies to Haru,” Rin said.

“Still, making new friends doesn’t sound so bad,” Makoto said.

“Good luck communicating with them,” Rin muttered.

“That’s why we have you, Rin-chan,” Nagisa said. He had apparently heard what Rin muttered.

“Don’t forget how well that worked as an argument,” Rin said. “I still have no intention of acting as a translator for you,” Rin said, his voice cold.

“We’ll be fine then,” Nagisa said, smiling.

“Speaking of, you never told us why you actually decided to do this along with the rest of us,” Makoto said, looking to Rin.

Rin sighed. “Nagisa said you needed someone who was really good at swimming, plus it might give more training in flexibility and ways to use it. Maybe I can use some of what I learn here in my normal swimming practice. Besides, he said Haru was part-taking and might acquire skills that I won’t have any hope in acquiring,” he explained.

“I see,” Makoto smiled. “So you joined because of Haru?” he asked.

“No,” Rin flat out denied, causing Makoto to smile.


	5. Arrival

The sun was high on the clear blue sky. The air was already pretty warm considering the fact that it wasn’t even past noon yet. Five people were standing in the shade near Iwatobi Station, waiting for the train to arrive.

None of them were saying a word, not even Nagisa. He was too excited thinking about what was going to happen once Yuuri, Viktor, Phichit and the others arrived.

Finally the tension was released as the train arrived at the station and came to a stop. There were only few passengers getting off at the station. Most were walking off alone or in pairs at maximum, except one group that just stood still, looking lost from each other to their surroundings and then back at each other.

Nagisa was first to notice them and react to their appearance. “Phi-chan! Yuu-chan! Vik-chan! Over here!” he called, waving his hand, catching the attention of three of the six people in the group.

The response was immediate. Viktor turned to them and smiled while waving a hand, Phichit did the same thing and everyone in the group started moving towards the five people waiting in the shade.

“Hey Nagisa! Rei!” Phichit was the first to reach them. He had decided to walk on ahead while Viktor and Yuuri decided to stay behind and walk with the other three.

“At least they speak Japanese,” Makoto said, sounding relieved.

The rest of the foreigners reached them now and a strange silence spread between them. It felt slightly awkward for all of them.

“Eh… so… will you guys introduce yourselves first?” Nagisa asked, feeling slightly affected by the awkwardness.

“Got it,” Yuuri responded. “So this is Phichit Chulanont, Otabek Altin, Jean-Jeacques Leroy or JJ for short, Yuri Plisetsky, Viktor Nikiforov, and I’m Katsuki Yuuri.” He pointed each one out as he introduced them to the five Japanese teens.

“I’m…. Ha- Nagisa Hazuki,” Nagisa said, struggling to put his name in the right order. His English wasn’t the best, but at least he could introduce himself. Judging from the fact that Yuuri had introduced everyone, it was easy to assume that not everyone spoke Japanese.

“I’m Rei Ryugazaki,” Rei introduced himself, also in English.

“Rin Matsuoka,” Rin said. Unlike Rei and Nagisa, he didn’t sound troubled at all.

“I’m Makoto Tachibana, and that’s  Haruka Nanase,” Makoto said, going through the trouble of introducing Haruka as well.

“Now that that’s out of the way, where do we start?” Nagisa looked between Yuuri and Viktor as he spoke to them in Japanese.

Viktor looked thoughtful. “I would like to start practice right away,” he said.

“At least we’re not going to waste time,” Rin mumbled.

“Let’s go! Mako-chan, lead the way!” Nagisa demanded, and Makoto and Haruka walked up front. Everyone else followed behind them as they walked all the way to Iwatobi High School. All the figure skaters had brought a surprisingly big amount of luggage. It made a lot of noise as they went.

As they got there, the luggage started becoming troublesome. None of the figure skaters knew where to put it. They stood around at the poolside, looking confused for a spot to put it.

“Here… you can put it,” Makoto said in English with a thick Japanese accent. He was pointing to a corner where there was plenty of room for the stuff.

“If you want me to translate for you, I can do that,” Yuuri offered as he passed by Makoto.

“Thank you, Katsuki-san,” Makoto answered in Japanese. “I might try on my own sometimes though. My English could use some work.”

Yuuri smiled, glad that he hadn’t had to say that. He had been thinking the same thing though. But it would be impolite to comment on Makoto’s English when it was clear that he was doing his best to make himself comprehendible.

“Okay, let’s get started,” Viktor said, speaking in English as most could understand. However, before he could get to what he would like them to start doing, a splash was heard from the pool and everyone turned their heads to see Haruka floating around in the surface of the water, slowly kicking his legs as he was staying afloat.

Yuri made an irritated sound. “Why does he intend to waste our time…” he muttered.

“Why did he do that?” Yuuri wondered aloud.

“Haru likes water,” Makoto answered.

“Should I get the net?” Nagisa asked.

“You seriously have that?” Rin asked with a slightly interested look.

“Definitely not!” Makoto exclaimed.

“Yuuri, what’s the matter?” Phichit asked.

“I’m not sure…” Yuuri looked unsurely at Phichit. “It seems they need a net…”

“To get him out?” Phichit asked.

“I guess so…” Yuuri said.

“I’m in on that!” Phichit said.

“There’s no need,” Viktor smiled. “I was planning for all of us to get in the water anyway to practice the basic positions, so let’s just join Haruka.”

“You’re awfully calm,” Yuri said, coldly.

Viktor just smiled and started taking off his clothes, revealing that he had bothered to put on a swimsuit in place of underwear that same morning. The five remaining figure skaters just stood and stared. None of them had thought of that.

“…We should go change…” Yuuri said.

“Of course,” JJ said. Otabek nodded and as they all went to get their swimsuits, Phichit sent Yuuri a smile.

“Know any place we can change?” Yuri asked Yuuri.

“No…” Yuuri said before turning his head to find someone to ask. He first noticed Rin who was standing the closest.

“Eh… Matsuoka-kun, know any place where we can change?” Yuuri asked.

Rin turned his head and then shook it. “Ask Makoto. I’m not attending this school.” He said.

Yuuri looked around and noticed that Makoto hadn’t jumped into the water either. “Tachibana-kun, is there a place where we can change?” Yuuri called, now speaking in Japanese. Makoto turned his head towards him.

“Sure,” Makoto said, also in Japanese. “I’ll show you.” Without a word he led them to the club room which they normally used for changing and informed them on how everything worked in his best English. Then he left the figure skaters to change.

“His English suck,” Yuri said.

“They seem to live in a small world,” JJ said while pulling off his shirt.

“Yuuri, isn’t this town smaller than Hasetsu?” Phichit asked. He had already gotten off his shirt and was now in the process of pulling off his pants.

“It’s a bit smaller…” Yuuri said. “But Yurio and JJ, you have to remember that I’ve spent years competing internationally, so of course their English isn’t good in comparison to mine.” He was saying this in defense of Makoto and the others.

“The one with red hair at least seemed decent,” Yuri muttered.

“We should finish changing,” Otabek said while pulling on his swimsuit.

“You’re right,” Yuuri said while he continued with changing while wondering how Viktor and the five Japanese high schoolers were passing the time out by the pool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this point onward, there will be some chapters focusing on the more technical stuff behind Fig- no sorry, synchronized swimming. I know nothing about it, so it might all become a little boring to read because I have no experience to back up my knowledge with. And all the knowledge I got from Wikipedia. If you happen to be practicing synchronized swimming, please don't expect anything big from me.   
> The only thing I know, which is not mentioned in the story, is the fact that the world of synchronized swimming didn't allow men to enter until not so long ago (I don't know exactly when) so it is not a common sport among men. But why would these guys care about a minor detail like that?   
> Thanks for reading until this point. I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Jackie


	6. Positions

Viktor’s Japanese wasn’t perfect, far from it. Sure, he had spent a while living with Yuuri in Japan and learned a lot, but he was Russian, and most in Yuuri’s family knew how to speak English, so they had spent a lot of time speaking that language. To top it off, although Nagisa and Rei were understandable in English, they couldn’t speak the language well at all and their communication was therefore limited. It was the same problem with Makoto. Rin didn’t seem like he was as limited as the others, and Viktor had no clue of how much he could communicate with Haruka. The other had barely spoken a word.

Now Yuuri was off to change with the others, and this left Viktor alone with the five strangers. He couldn’t go with the others since he had put on his swimsuit underneath his clothes this morning.

But what was there to do about it now? Viktor asked himself this as he put on a smile. He might as well figure out a way to make the best of the situation. He turned towards the pool. Haruka was in the water, still floating around, while the other four were standing on the poolside. Makoto was calling for Haruka to leave the water while Nagisa was cheering for him to keep going, Rei was looking worriedly around while Rin looked like he couldn’t care less.

“Alright,” Viktor said in his best Japanese. “You should all do as Haruka and jump in the water.”

“Are you sure, Nikiforov-san?” Makoto asked. “Shouldn’t we wait for the others?”

“Viktor is fine,” Viktor said. “And I would like to see how flexible you are in the water before they get here. I already know their level.”

“Let’s go!” Nagisa exclaimed before being the first to jump in the pool, head first. Rin followed and Makoto and Rei went last.

Once they were all in the water and Haruka had swum up to them, Viktor figured he could begin his instructions.

“Okay, try imitating me while being down there,” Viktor said while he started making positions for the others to imitate. He kept them up for as long as he could to ensure that everyone had a fair chance of copying him. Much to his surprise, they were all very good at copying. Viktor noted how Nagisa was usually the first to try and imitate him while Haruka was usually the first at mastering the imitation completely.

Viktor spent this time taking note of all their abilities. He could tell that Rin and Haruka usually started in the same time and appeared to compete against each other in who could master it first. Nagisa was very eager to master everything, but more often than not resulted in him failing to imitate completely. Rei and Makoto were both working hard on the imitation. Rei seemed a bit more insecure in the water but his imitations usually turned out well, when he managed to complete them. He could make a beautiful figure skater if it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t seem to want to go on the ice. Viktor found them all to be very interesting individuals.

“We’re back!” Phichit called as he returned with Yuuri, Yuri, Otabek and JJ following behind him.

Viktor stopped posing and turned to them. His eyes quickly found Yuuri’s and he smiled and waved. “Good to have you back,” he said. “Now, you should all hurry up and get in the pool as we can get started on practice.”

“It probably wouldn’t be needed,” JJ said.

“Suit yourself,” Yuri muttered in response to JJ’s statement before he went ahead and got in the pool as the first one. It has to be said that he did this much less elegantly than the swimmers had done it earlier. Otabek followed right after Yuri, Phichit was after him, getting in the water just before Yuuri did. JJ got in the pool as the last one.

As they were all in, Viktor smiled and turned to look at all of them.

“Alright, the first position I’d like you to learn is the basic Back Layout. You just lie flat on your back in the surface of the water. Your body has to be completely straight and rigid,” Viktor explained this in English. It was easier that way since he didn’t know half the words in Japanese anyway. Besides, the majority here understood and spoke English really well.

Everyone responded to Viktor’s instructions. Rin, Nagisa and Makoto managed to perform this perfectly. Haruka was quick to follow as soon as he saw what they were doing. Rei did too, but started sinking as he made the attempt. The figure skaters were much less successful. Otabek was the first to manage, quickly followed by JJ. Yuuri, Yuri and Phichit failed to keep their bodies straight and rigid and as Yuri started sinking beside Makoto, the latter went to help him keep his body completely straight. Yuri frowned, but still appreciated the help.

Rin also gave up keeping himself straight to go help Rei out as he would stop sinking.

As everyone was lying still in the surface of the water, face-up, Viktor figured he could continue with the lesson.

“So, we’ll start by making a ballet leg. Now you stretch one leg and hold it perpendicular to the body. The other leg just stays where it is, parallel to the surface of the water,” Viktor said.

“This is stupid,” Yuri muttered in Russian, not thinking anyone would hear him.

“You do look stupid, especially with that frown on your face,” Viktor answered, also in Russian.

“What?” Yuuri asked, wondering what words had just been exchanged between the two Russian among them.

“Nothing,” Viktor said. “I just told Yurio that his frowning face looks stupid.” He smiled as he said the last part, and Yuri frowned even more, so much that he lost his balance and started sinking again.

“Once Yurio is back in position, we can continue,” Viktor paused a bit, waiting for Yuri to get back in position. “Okay, now you bend the knee of your outstretched leg as the toe of that leg touches your other knee,” he instructed.

The moves were considerably simple. However, because of their simplicity, Viktor figured it might actually be a bit difficult to remember.

“Next up is Double Ballet Leg where you do the Ballet leg with both legs instead of just the one,” Viktor explained. After everyone had done the Double Ballet Leg, he went on to explain the next.

“Now you go back to the Ballet Leg position and pull your bottom leg, the one that is parallel to the water surface, up to your chest as the skin of your leg is touching the knee of your vertical leg while remaining parallel to the surface,” Viktor explained.

This seemed to be the most difficult position to master. Both swimmers and figure skaters alike were having a great deal of trouble doing it right. Haruka was first to master it with Yuri following behind shortly after. The others took a great deal longer when it came to mastering it, all of them constantly making little errors that caused them to lose their balance in the water.

After waiting for ten minutes, Viktor decided that they would all need to try and remember these five positions. They had gone through five. It could be made a pair exorcise. There were benefits in this. It would be easier to do the positions if you were two working together. The other benefit would be if they partnered up so a figure skater and a swimmer were forming a pair. This would strengthen the relationships and make everyone get to know the others a bit better, instead of them all only sticking to the same group because of the barrier caused by the different languages.

“Alright,” Viktor said. “I think we have been trying this enough. I would like us to do a little repetition now as to make these five positions stick with you a bit more. Split into pairs, a figure skater and a swimmer in each pair and I will assign each of you a position to perform,” he instructed.

Makoto turned to Yuri to offer that they worked together. Nagisa swam up to Phichit and they high-five’d. None of them had needed to ask. JJ was first to decide to approach Rin and ask if they should partner up. Rin accepted this. Yuuri decided that he would feel more comfortable with someone he know and therefore went to ask Rei if they should partner up. This left Otabek and Haruka in the last pair.

“Alright,” Viktor said once everyone had found a partner. “I will divide the positions now. Yuuri, Rei, you’ll take the Back Layout. Yurio and Makoto will take the Ballet Leg.” Viktor had intentionally picked the Ballet leg for Yurio because of his declaration of it looking stupid earlier on. “Phichit and Nagisa will do the Bent Knee. JJ and Rin will be doing the Double Ballet Leg and Otabek and Haruka will be performing the Flamingo. You have 20 minutes,” Viktor clapped his hands together. “Begin!”


	7. Work in Pairs

Yuuri turned to Rei after their task had been given to them. None of them were sure of the way the Back Layout was working. They had seen the others do it, but Yuuri had noticed how Rei started sinking almost immediately.

“Should we try?” Yuuri just asked.

“We should,” Rei replied. “Can you do it, Katsuki-san?” he asked.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult,” Yuuri said. “How about you, Ryuugazaki-kun?” he asked.

“As you said, it shouldn’t be difficult,” Rei said before he attempted to float. It did go better, in fact so well that Yuuri thought he could start floating too when Rei started sinking.

“Ryuugazaki-kun!” Yuuri exclaimed and Rei stopped floating to stand up again.

“I thought I was over this,” he muttered.

“Do you sink often?” Yuuri asked, not exactly able to comprehend how a swimmer could sink so easily.

“I only started swimming when I started high school, and at that time, I was sinking like a rock all the time. If it weren’t for the others, I wouldn’t have learned how to swim at all,” Rei said, smiling as he looked around at everyone else. They were all working hard to perform the task they’d been given.

“I see,” Yuuri said. “But you can’t float?” he asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Rei said.

“Then, let’s start by that. Get up and… I guess… try and sustain your balance?” Yuuri said, not entirely sure on how to handle the matter.

Rei went to try and float again and started sinking after some time. Yuuri tried putting an arm under his lower back to help him sustain balance. It seemed to work. As he moved it after a few seconds, Rei kept floating.

“I’m going to attempt floating on my own,” Yuuri said. He let himself float. It didn’t go well at all. He wasn’t entirely rigid, but at least he didn’t sink.

A little away from where Yuuri and Rei were floating around, Makoto was just lowering his leg and bringing himself into a standing position, looking at Yuri as he did so.

“Now you, Plisetsky-kun,” Makoto said.

Yuri turned away his head. His long, wet hair sending water drops flying in every direction. “This is stupid,” he muttered in English this time.

“It’s… little stupid,” Makoto said, still trying his best to speak English. Yuri just thought he seemed stupid, and the soft smile on his face didn’t exactly make Yuri’s view on him any better.

“You’re stupid too,” Yuri muttered.

Makoto looked a little hurt and then smiled. “Sorry. Let’s try?” he asked, trying to change the subject away from stupidity.

“No,” Yuri said. “I don’t wanna.”

“We have to,” Makoto said. “Please.”

Yuri sighed. He still didn’t want to do it because he still thought it looked stupid and he really didn’t see the point in all this, but he knew that he couldn’t bail out now. He would have to do this, whether he wanted to or not. So he decided to do it, just to apiece Makoto and the smiling guy on the poolside.

That man on the poolside was currently watching as Phichit and Nagisa were working out how to do the Bent Knee position. Both were all smiles as they worked on it.

“Phi-chan, which knee did we need to bend?” Nagisa asked.

“The one of the outstretched,” Phichit said.

“Which outstretched?” Nagisa asked.

“The one that’s not parallel to the surface?” Phichit asked, then looked up. “Viktor, which knee has to be bent?” he asked.

“The one up in the air,” Viktor replied. “You two doing okay?”

“We’re fine,” Phichit said. “Can you get my phone and take a photo of me doing this though?” he asked.

Viktor didn’t see why it was so important, but he didn’t have anything better to do at the moment, so he might as well do as Phichit requested.

“Let me be on it!” Nagisa said.

Viktor put himself in an ankle that would ensure that both Phichit and Nagisa would be on the picture and then he took one, as they were both in position. He smiled as he looked in the background of that photo. There he could see Rin and JJ standing and talking in what looked like a peaceful manner.

But what was on the picture, didn’t correspond to what was actually going on. In reality, Rin was pretty irritated with JJ, and JJ was just as irritated with Rin.

“You’re too full of yourself,” Rin said.

“You’re worse,” JJ said.

“At least I can live up to what I say,” Rin snapped.

“Why do I get the feeling you take my words a lot more seriously than anyone else?” JJ asked.

“I’m used to people at least doing what they say they can do, but you said this would be easy and then you can barely do the Back Layout!” Rin yelled.

“Tune down the emotion,” JJ said, sighing.

Rin sighed too and none of them said anything for about a minute.

“Try again,” Rin said.

JJ went into the back layout and attempted to float.

“Start by raising one leg, once that’s up, you raise the other,” Rin said in as patient a tone as possible as not to create more conflicts. He didn’t really care, this guy was irritating, but for the sake of this project, he would have to pretend to get along.

JJ did as he was told, and he actually managed to float and then Rin attempted the position as well, accomplishing with success.

A couple that was much less successful was Haruka and Otabek. They were trying individually to do the Flamingo position and especially Otabek wasn’t doing well. He was wondering when Haruka would offer his help, but the other didn’t do anything. He was wondering if this partnership was going to work out at all. They were both the silent type it seemed. Haruka clearly wasn’t going to take the first step, but Otabek didn’t feel like doing it either.

Asking for help was a sign of weakness, that was part reason why Otabek didn’t want to start the conversation, and certainly not about that. But if he wanted help, he might have to swallow his pride.

But to his luck, Haruka stopped practicing and when Otabek failed the flamingo for the sixth time, he stood up to find himself looking directly into Haruka’s face.

Without saying a word, Haruka gestured for him to go back in position, and Otabek tried and failed once more.

“You’re not very talkative,” Otabek stated.

Haruka only sent him a strange look while muttering something in Japanese. Otabek didn’t understand that, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to or not, but he decided to leave it and continue the teamwork as it was, just relieved that the wall was broken and he was now finally about to get the hang of the Flamingo.

“Have you gotten comfortable with your respective positions?” Viktor asked as their time was up. He had been happy to see how the five pairs were starting to get more comfortable with one another and improving their assigned position.

“We’re good here,” Yuuri said, waving.

“We too,” Makoto said.

“We’ve got it down too,” Phichit said.

“Think we did too,” Rin said.

Otabek just nodded his head and Haruka was quick to do the same.

“Okay, now it’s time to show this to everyone else,” Viktor said, sounding cheerful.

Every group performed, one by one. They were starting with Yuuri and Rei and ending with Haruka and Otabek. After this, Yuuri and Makoto exchanged a few words, agreeing to call it a day. Once Yuuri discussed this with Viktor, he agreed, saying he would like to get settled in too before they thought of doing much more.


	8. Speak Up

“We’re finishing for today,” Viktor called as everyone in the pool could hear him clearly. It had an immediate effect. Everyone who hadn’t already been paying attention to him (meaning everyone except Yuuri and Makoto) looked up at him.

“That’s so soon,” Nagisa said.

“We all need to get settled in too,” Yuuri explained in Japanese. “Some of us haven’t had any rest ever since they left for Japan.”

“Oh,” Nagisa said, an understanding expression appeared on his face. “Then it might be best to stop.”

“Haru,” Makoto called. “We’re stopping for today.”

Haruka nodded his head and went to climb out of the pool. Everyone else were also about to leave.

“Is there a place to wash all this chlorine off?” Yuri asked in an irritated tone. He was looking between Makoto and Yuuri, but it was Rin who answered, seeing as Yuuri didn’t know and Makoto didn’t understand the question.

“Just follow us,” he said.

Everyone went to the showers and all took turns, because there weren’t more than four of them. After this, they all went to change into normal clothes and left the school grounds.

“Hazuki-kun,” Yuuri started. “Didn’t you say we could stay somewhere while we were here. There are no hotels around.”

“Did you check?” Rei asked.

“I did,” Yuuri replied. “The closest one is three towns away.”

“Hold on, Nagisa said you could stay somewhere?” Makoto asked.

“It would have been difficult to make the arrangements with no place to stay otherwise,” Yuuri said. “Why, is there a problem?”

Makoto turned to Nagisa. “Where would they stay?” he asked.

“At Haru-chan’s place,” Nagisa said, smiling, proud at how he had managed to find a place that none other seemed to have thought of.

“Nagisa!” Makoto exclaimed. “Do you realize that Haru doesn’t speak English?!”

“Yuu-chan speaks Japanese, and so does Vik-chan and Phi-chan,” Nagisa answered.

“What about Leroy-san, Altin-san and Plisetsky-kun?” Makoto asked. “If they have no way of communicating, what are they going to do?”

“Mako-chan, you worry too much,” Nagisa said.

“But this is with good reason!” Makoto was frustrated. “What does Haru say about this?”

“Let’s ask,” Nagisa said, turning to Haruka. “Haru-chan, do you mind them staying at your place?”

“No, and don’t put –chan on my name,” Haruka said, sounding irritated.

Neither Makoto nor Nagisa said anything for a little while. With just a few words, Haruka had managed to shut the both of them up.

“Haru… I’m sorry for taking the argument in your place,” Makoto said.

Haruka didn’t say anything, he just looked at Makoto out of the corner of his eye and nodded his head once, letting the other know that the apology had been accepted.

“So… we stay with you, Nanase-kun?” Yuuri asked.

Haruka looked at Yuuri, then nodded his head.

Yuuri thought back. Had he ever heard Haruka speak before? He didn’t think he had. When they met at the station, Makoto had been the one introducing the both of them. Yuuri didn’t think he had heard Haruka speak while they were practicing either. Of course he didn’t know if he had spoken while he had been changing with the others or when they were working in pairs, but he hadn’t heard him speak once, not even now when he was asked questions directly did he speak, not to Nagisa and Makoto and not to Yuuri either.

“Excuse me, Nanase-kun, but… can you speak?” Yuuri asked, trying to keep his question as polite as possible. If it really was the case, then he wouldn’t like to bother Haruka too much with it.

For some reason, Rin and Nagisa started laughing as Yuuri asked his question. Apparently there was something very funny about the situation, but Yuuri couldn’t tell what it was.

Haruka sent his two laughing friends a cold glance before he looked back at Yuuri. “Yes,” he replied.

“No, Haru-chan, you should’ve kept it up and tricked them!” Nagisa whined.

“Too troublesome,” Haruka replied, causing Nagisa to whine even more.

“So, he can speak,” JJ commented.

“I thought he couldn’t either,” Yuuri smiled, looking at the other figure skaters. “It seems we’re going to stay at his place.”

“That’s great,” Viktor said.

“Did you know he could speak?” Yuri asked Otabek.

“We didn’t speak while working together,” Otabek said. “If it weren’t for his friends, he would be considered a loner too.”

“I see,” Yuri said.

“Well, if there are no more plans today, I’m going home,” Rin declared, turning on his heel. He was done laughing at Yuuri’s assumption of Haruka and didn’t want to stick around for too long. This project wasn’t his anyway.

“Rei-chan and I will go home too,” Nagisa said.

“Shouldn’t we help them settle in?” Rei asked.

“Haru-chan and Mako-chan can handle that fine. Besides, Haru-chan’s house isn’t that big. It would be too crammed if we went,” Nagisa explained before he waved goodbye to everyone and left for the station while dragging Rei along.

“Well…?” An insecure expression appeared on Makoto’s face. “We… go here?” He didn’t mean it as a question, but it came out like that because he was insecure in his English.

Yuuri nodded his head. “Just walk ahead, we’ll follow,” he said, responding in English.

“Okay,” Makoto answered before he started walking. As if they had planned it beforehand, Haruka started walking in the exact same time. Yuuri was first to follow with Viktor and Phichit behind him. After them was JJ and in the very back, Yuri and Otabek were walking as the last ones.

“Will you be okay, Haru?” Makoto asked.

Haruka looked up at Makoto, not entirely sure what the other was talking about.

“You don’t speak English at all, sure Katsuki-san can talk to you and Nikiforov-san and Chulanont-san can speak a bit Japanese, but as I said before, Leroy-san, Altin-san and Plisetsky-kun don’t speak Japanese, what will you do if you need to talk to them?”

Haruka shrugged. “Figure out something,” he said.

“Do you want me to stay and help out?” Makoto asked.

“It’s not needed,” Haruka said.

Makoto just smiled. “I’ll give Katsuki-san my number before going home just in case,” he said.

“Do as you like,” Haruka said, not looking back at Makoto and most certainly not returning that smile he was flashing.

The little group walked up the stone steps and reached the point where Makoto would part from them. Before they parted, Makoto turned to Yuuri.

“Katsuki-san, I live just up there,” Makoto said, pointing to his house. “I’ll give you my number. Knowing Haru, he won’t call if any problem should occur, so if there’s any problem, just call me and I’ll come over,” he said.

“Got it,” Yuuri said, taking out his phone and handing it to Makoto as the later could put in his number. Then Yuuri had his phone back and Makoto went home. Haruka started walking up the stairs towards his own house and the others followed him all the way up there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are errors, live with it or not. I can't find a way to fix it at my skill level.   
> I'll publish again tomorrow, seeing as tomorrow is somewhat a special day, just so you know. It's not like today isn't special though. I'm sure we all have something to celebrate, if not every day, then at least sometimes. Maybe some of you have something to celebrate today or tomorrow too. Today, I'm celebrating the fact that I am not going to attend another class until I start university. (I don't know when, but not this year). And this marks the beginning of the final exam period. Our final exams have also been announced and we have been grated in the subjects that we are not being examined in.  
> Anyways, enough with the unimportant stuff. I'd just like to thank you for reading as always. Just the fact that someone reads my works means a lot to me. 
> 
> Jackie


	9. Issue

Haruka opened the door to his house, stepped inside and took off his shoes, before walking further inside the house. He didn’t say a word to the others. The only sign he left that showed that he had allowed them to enter, was the fact that he had left the door open.

Yuuri was first to step inside and take off his shoes and Viktor followed right behind him. Yuri and Otabek were next and Phichit and JJ went in last.

“Nanase-kun!” Yuuri called. He couldn’t see Haruka anywhere. “Where may we put our luggage?” he asked.

Haruka came out of the kitchen and looked at them. “Just there,” he said, gesturing towards the wall furthest away from himself.

“Great,” Yuuri said, before placing his stuff there. The others followed his example and put their luggage there as well. Then they all walked down the hallway to stand by the kitchen door. Haruka was already in there, looking through the fridge.

“What’s he doing?” Yuri muttered, sounding slightly irritated.

Haruka looked up and shut the fridge. He made eye contact with Yuuri before he spoke. “The bathroom’s upstairs. I’ll go shopping,” he said while grabbing a shopping-bag and walking through another door to the living room. He then walked into the hallway. This was to avoid having to push past all the people he couldn’t communicate with anyway.

“Shouldn’t one of us go with you?” Yuuri asked.

“No need,” Haruka said while putting his shoes back on. He stood up and pushed the door open.

“Take care,” Yuuri exclaimed, slightly reflexively. It felt weird to say under these circumstances, but he would’ve felt even weirder, not saying it.

Haruka stopped, caught off guard from Yuuri’s outburst. “I’ll be back,” he said then as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him, leaving the figure skaters to themselves in his house.

“What was that about?” JJ asked.

“He told me that the bathroom’s upstairs and that he’s going out for shopping,” Yuuri replied.

“I don’t know about you, but I think that us being here, might be pushing him out of his comfort zone,” Viktor said with a slightly thoughtful expression on his face.

“What do you mean?” Phichit asked.

“I’m not sure,” Viktor said. “But he doesn’t seem like a person who socializes much and as far as I understand, he has trouble communicating with us, isn’t that right, Yuuri?” he asked, looking at Yuuri.

“Tachibana-kun did say that Nanase-kun doesn’t speak English at all. I think that’s part reason why he isn’t talking much,” Yuuri said.

“Then why did the blonde guy suggest this place?” Yuri asked. “There isn’t even that much space.”

“And if he is still living with his parents, then there’ll be even less. We’d have to squeeze together,” JJ said.

“Maybe that’s why,” Otabek said.

“What do you mean?” Yuri asked, looking to Otabek.

“Maybe his parents aren’t here, so compared to the others, he has the more room, and he don’t need permission to have us over as long as we leave before they return,” Otabek explained.

“Then, if he is by himself, we should help him all we can,” Viktor said, smiling.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” Yuuri said. “I just asked him if one of us should help him go shopping, but he declined.”

“He shouldn’t do it by himself,” Viktor said. “I’ll go after him then,” he was about to head towards the door when Yuuri stepped up in front of him and blocked his way.

“Viktor, I think it’s best if you’re first in the bath. You stink of chlorine,” he said.

“But I wasn’t in the water, and I washed myself afterwards,” Viktor argued.

“I insist you go first,” Yuuri said.

With a slightly irritated expression, Viktor collected his soap, towel and a change of clothes from his luggage before he headed upstairs, not sparing a glance at anyone, especially not Yuuri.

Yuuri sighed. “Seems he’s angry with me,” he said.

“Of course, you went against him,” Yuri said.

“I just think that, regardless of Nanase-kun’s situation, we shouldn’t try to help him out until we know more. That is, unless he asks. We’re only guests,” Yuuri said.

No one said a thing against it. They could kinda see the conflict from both Yuuri’s and Viktor’s point of view, some more than others. None of them wanted to take a side in the conflict though, knowing that it would drag them directly into it.

There was an eerie silence until Phichit decided to look into the living room and suggested that they went to sit there until Viktor finished in the bath or Haruka came back, whichever came first.

It was the former that happened first. After having sat in the living room for about fifteen minutes, Viktor came in. He looked down at all of them and they looked back up at him for an awkward minute before he sat down.

“The bathroom’s free,” he said. This was followed by an awkward silence. No one spoke before Yuuri looked up to meet Phichit’s eyes and realized that the other was silently telling him to go to the bathroom next.

“Then… if no one mind, I’ll go take a bath,” he said.

No one objected, and Yuuri went to gather the things he’d need before he went upstairs.

It wasn’t long after Yuuri had gone to take a bath when Haruka came back from shopping. He just opened the door with a small mutter the others barely heard and certainly didn’t understand. Then he went to the kitchen to put the groceries back in place.

“Ah, Welcome back, Haruka,” Viktor said. “Is there anything we can do for you?” he asked.

“No,” Haruka said in a dismissive tone.

“Did I say something wrong?” Viktor wondered.

“Probably,” Yuri said.

“You offered your help,” JJ said.

“We’re not supposed to get involved with that,” Phichit whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I don’t think it’s that,” Viktor dismissed JJ’s suggestion without commenting further on it. He wasn’t interested in dragging anyone into his little discussion with Yuuri. It was a problem between the two of them. No one else needed to get involved.

Out in the kitchen, Haruka was still unpacking the groceries while listening to the foreigners discussing in the next room. He still didn’t understand a word of what they were saying, and if he had to be honest, hearing them talk was very exhausting.

It wasn’t like he didn’t see the reason why Nagisa had suggested that they could stay at his place. His parents were still out traveling and his house was big for just one person to live in. And this was closer than any hotel. But still, he wished they could’ve stayed somewhere else as he wouldn’t have to deal with a communication-problem of this level. He could only communicate with one, two or three if he was lucky, exactly like Makoto had said.

But he had had to recognize the fact that this really was the best option for everyone except him, and so he accepted the strangers into his house without a single complaint. It should be possible to play hotel for a month without too many problems. The biggest issue he could come up with at the moment was where they would all sleep. He wished Nagisa had told him this sooner as he could’ve prepared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At any rate. I was talking about something worth celebrating yesterday. Today, May 17th 2017, marks the 5th anniversary of my first profile on a fanfic website This means that I'm basically beginning my fifth year of officially writing fanfics. At least, that's something I'd like to mark as memorable.   
> That's all for me today. Thank you to those of you who keep on reading this weird story. I hope it's still enjoyable. 
> 
> Jackie


	10. Iwatobi Hotel

When Yuuri came back from his bath, he found that everyone had suddenly gotten a glass of tea in front of them and a bottle was standing on the middle of the table. When he looked out in the kitchen, he saw that Haruka was at work, cleaning one of three mackerel.

“Are we having mackerel?” Yuuri asked.

Haruka only nodded his head.

“I’m gonna take a bath,” Phichit said as he got up to leave the others. Yuuri went to sit with them instead, pouring himself some tea. No one said a word until Phichit returned from his bath and started an eager conversation with Yuuri about some of the landmarks he had seen. At some point, Viktor and JJ joined the discussion, also talking about landmarks.

After some time, once everyone, aside from Haruka, had taken a bath, Haruka finished preparing the meal he had gotten started on making and served food for the six figure skaters. He was still thinking on where they should all sleep as he sat down in a corner, keeping a distance to the others.

“He can cook?” Phichit asked, in surprise.

“You can’t?” JJ asked.

“I’ve been busy skating all my life,” Phichit said. “Don’t tell me you can cook,” He smiled as he said this and JJ turned away, defeated.

“Thank you for the meal,” Yuuri said, trying to keep up the Japanese traditions. Then he got started on eating. Everyone else ate too.

“It’s good!” Phichit exclaimed. “This is the best home-cooked meal I’ve had in a while!”

“Isn’t it the first home-cooked meal you’ve had in a while too, Phichit-kun?” Yuuri asked.

“It’s good,” Viktor said in Japanese, turning to look at Haruka.

“You’re liking the food too?” Otabek asked Yuri, who was eating at a really quick speed.

“I’m hungry,” Yuri said.

Otabek smiled.

“So, you both like the food,” JJ concluded from Yuri’s and Otabek’s short conversation.

“It’s decent,” Otabek said.

“Haruka,” Viktor said, smiling widely. “Yurio, JJ and Otabek like your food too,”

Haruka nodded his head, feeling slightly uncomfortable from all the compliments. In his opinion, he had done nothing special. It was just basic cooking skills. Still, he knew he had to respond to the compliments.

“Thank you,” he said in English with an even thicker Japanese accent than Makoto had displayed.

“Anyways, Nanase-kun. Where do you plan to have us sleep, you don’t seem to have that many rooms,” Yuuri said, turning to Haruka as he spoke.

Haruka looked at Yuuri. He hadn’t exactly decided yet, but he would have to give up his best idea as a suggestion. “One borrows the guest room, two borrows my parents’ room and then three can stay here in the living room.” He was partly lying. They didn’t have a guest room. The room he intended to lend them was his own room. He had plans for where he would stay, but knowing the norms among normal people, he decided not to let them know of this. He personally didn’t mind the alternative solution though, in fact, it was the opposite.

“Okay,” Yuuri said before translating Haruka’s explanation to English as the others could understand what he had just said regarding the rooms.

“Yuuri and Viktor will take Haruka’s Parents’ room,” Phichit declared.

“Agreed,” JJ said. “And I take the guest room.”

“Leaving me, Yuri and Otabek in the living room,” Phichit said.

“Do you need help preparing?” Yuuri asked, looking at Haruka.

Haruka shook his head, eating another bite of mackerel. He didn’t need the help. He knew what to do and the others would just get in the way if he asked them to help. It would take even longer like that. He would rather just do it all by himself.

After they’d finished and Haruka had washed the dishes, he went to do all the beds, changing the sheets on his own bed and on his parents’ bed before he went to find three of the four futons they had.

After Haruka had finished, the figure skaters were still sitting and talking around the table, so he decided to go for a walk instead, to clear his head from all the English they were speaking at his home. Yuuri heard him leave and took a concerned look out in the hallway, but he couldn’t see Haruka anywhere and didn’t try to look for him, but he was a little concerned for their host.

Haruka returned just before they were about to prepare to go to bed and while everyone took turns in the bathroom, he laid out the futons in the living room before he went to show JJ, Viktor and Yuuri the rooms they would be staying in.

“He’s managing well,” Viktor said, as he and Yuuri were lying in bed. The lights had been turned off and they were both about to sleep, but it seemed Viktor wanted to talk. They had barely exchanged a word since their disagreement earlier that day.

“Nanase-kun?” Yuuri asked. “Yeah… He does know what he’s dealing with.”

“I get the feeling that he really doesn’t want our help,” Viktor said.

“You’re right. We might not be able to help him with chores and such. I personally don’t really have any experiences with it either,” Yuuri said.

“So you win our argument from earlier, Yuuri,” Viktor said, turning in the bed as he was lying with his face towards Yuuri. Yuuri turned his head to look back at Viktor.

“He might not need our help with chores, but… I don’t think he’s working well with us socially,” he said.

“I doubt that. He probably just doesn’t want to talk,” Viktor said.

“Maybe not. He isn’t making any attempts, but still… How would you feel living with some strangers you couldn’t communicate with?” Yuuri asked.

“I’ve been living with you and your family for a while,” Viktor said.

“That was willingly.” Yuuri argued. “Nanase-kun doesn’t really have a choice but to have us.”

“Yuuri,” Viktor leaned up on one elbow and reached out a hand, placing it on Yuuri’s cheek, cupping it softly. “We will figure it out and see how it goes for the time being. Stop worrying so much. We will figure out if there is a problem. I’ll help too,” Viktor assured. “Now, just sleep. We have a long day tomorrow too.”

Yuuri nodded his head, looking up to meet Viktor’s eyes. “You’re right, Viktor,” he said. “Thank you,”

“Sleep well,” Viktor just said, leaning down to plant a small kiss on Yuuri’s forehead before he lied back on his side of the bed to go to sleep. Yuuri fell asleep shortly after.

* * *

 

On the morning on the following day, Viktor was awoken by the sound of Yuri’s irritated voice, coming from downstairs. He looked at the display of his phone to see that the time was a little past eight. He had to get up, and so did the sleeping beauty beside him.

Waking up Yuuri wasn’t difficult at all, he quickly sat up and also registered the sound of Yuri’s voice, coming from downstairs.

“What do you think is going on, Viktor?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Viktor replied. “We could go see?” he suggested as he was pulling on some clothes before he went to open the door. Yuuri got busy doing the same before he hurried to follow Viktor on his way downstairs.

“Are we going to survive on fish for all the time we’re here?!” Yuri yelled in loud protests.

“Yuri, this is Haruka’s house, so Haruka decides what we’ll have,” Phichit said, in an attempt to calm Yuri down.

Yuuri and Viktor saw this before they went to take a look into the kitchen where they could see Haruka, already up and preparing breakfast for them. He was already in the middle of frying something on the pan while rice was boiling in the rice cooker. He didn’t seem to take notice of the fact that Yuuri and Viktor were watching him, or that Yuri was yelling rather loudly.

“What’s the problem?” Viktor asked Yuri.

“He’s making fish and rice again. And it’s not just any fish! It’s the same!” Yuri complained.

“Yuri,” Yuuri said. “We are Nanase-kun’s guests, so we should just be happy that he is willing to cook for us, don’t you think?”

Yuri frowned and turned away while muttering something about a pig. No one acted on it though, and Haruka got to finish making his mackerel and they all ate while only calm conversations took place around the table. Yuri didn’t say a word.


	11. Scull

About an hour after everyone had gotten up, they all left Haruka’s house to go to Iwatobi High School. They didn’t get further than down the first few steps before Yuri caught sight of someone standing there, waiting.

“Isn’t that the big guy?” he asked, not recalling the name.

“I think his name was Tacky…Whana?” JJ said in a questioning way.

“No, it was Tjakkikana!” Phichit argued. Unlike the others, he did remember the real name, but he thought it was fun to just guess wrong because JJ had.

“What’s his first name then?” JJ asked.

“I don’t know… Hatoto?” Phichit asked.

“It’s Hatoro,” Yuri argued.

“Wasn’t it Totoro?” JJ asked.

“Like the thing in that Gibli-movie?” Phichit asked.

“You should probably stop making fun of that now,” Yuuri said, interrupting the discussion. “It’s not very nice to make fun of someone’s name like that.”

“Fine,” Phichit sighed. “Sorry.”

“But seriously, what was his name?” JJ asked.

“I think it was Makoto Tachibana,” Viktor said before looking to Yuuri, who confirmed this by nodding his head.

It was then they reached the place where Makoto was waiting for them. They all quickly greeted each other and walked on towards the school together. Makoto quickly spoke to Haruka about how everything had turned out, but when he couldn’t get any details, he turned to Yuuri to ask about it.

“You worry a lot about Nanase-kun, don’t you, Tachibana-kun?” Yuuri asked.

“Well,” Makoto smiled. “Haru is my childhood friend. We’ve been through a lot together.”

“I see,” Yuuri smiled as they walked on.

When they reached the school, Rin, Rei and Nagisa had already arrived and were waiting by the poolside, all wearing their swimsuits. Today everyone had decided to wear their swimsuits underneath their clothes. Like that, they wouldn’t need to spend time changing, but could get started on training right away.

“Alright, we start by getting back in the water,” Viktor said to anyone other than Haruka, who had already left his clothes in a pile and jumped in the pool. Now everyone else followed him.

“Today, we’ll begin with the basic skills. This means that it’s something you will need to use during the rest of the training. It should also make the positions we practiced yesterday a bit easier.” Viktor instructed. “The first I’d like you to do is the scull. Now, there are different types of sculls. The one we will put our primary focus on is the support scull.” Viktor turned to face them. “Watch what I do,” he said.

He pressed his upper arms against his sides and raised his forearms as they were at a 90 degree angle to the rest of his body, his palms facing upward. Then he started moving his forearms back and forth while maintaining the angle.

“I don’t get it,” Phichit said.

Yuuri shook his head. “Neither do I,” he said.

Rei, Makoto and Nagisa all shook their heads, not comprehending it either. In fact most looked like they didn’t understand.

Viktor sighed and got in the water as well. “You will need to do it upside down from how I did it.” When it still looked like no one really got it, Viktor decided to show it. He just had to handpick one he thought could do it.

“Haruka,” he said, waving at Haruka.

Haruka responded and made his way up to Viktor with a slightly irritated expression. He stood still, looking at Viktor, waiting for the instructions.

“Do you have a nose-clip?” Viktor asked.

“I have ten of them in my bag,” Nagisa said, swimming to the poolside, getting up and to his bag. He found the nose-clips and unpacked one before he headed back to the pool. He threw it in Haruka’s directions, and the dark-haired caught it easily and put it on.

“Alright,” Viktor said. “Dive under and turn yourself upside down. I will lead you to the rest,” he said.

Haruka looked at Viktor with a face that clearly showed how little he understood of what he was being told.

“Upside down Haru!” Rin yelled from almost across the pool.

Nagisa, who had sat on the edge of the pool with only his legs in the water, stood up and went to unwrap the remaining nine nose-clips, figuring it would take some time before any progress was being made.

“You’re good with English, Rin,” Viktor concluded. “You can translate for Haruka. It’ll be a lot faster that way.” He was smiling widely as he said this, ignoring the irritated frown that appeared on Rin’s face.

“Translate yourself, or have Katsuki do it,” Rin yelled. “Besides, I’ve just told him what to do!”

Vitor looked from Rin to Haruka in time to see the latter dive under the surface and turning himself upside down. Viktor dove under the surface as well and helped Haruka form the support scull.

Afterwards, Viktor resurfaced to explain what he had helped Haruka doing while Haruka held himself in the position. Then he dove back under the surface and signaled for Haruka to stop doing the position and come back up.

“I think we have to help everyone make the scull,” Viktor said. “You understand how to do it?” he asked.

Haruka nodded his head once in response.

“Good,” Viktor said before he swam to Yuuri to help him make the scull. Meanwhile, Nagisa had finished unwrapping all the nose-clips and was now throwing one to each of the people in the pool. Only Yuuri failed to catch his, luckily for him, Viktor got it instead.

While Viktor was taking his sweet time helping Yuuri learn the scull to perfection, Haruka swam around among the others, helping them out, and as he had taught one how to do it, they started helping out too. In the end, Haruka found himself standing in front of Rin, something he really hadn’t hoped would happen.

The process was somewhat successful, aside from Rin being irritated all the while because Haruka was the one teaching him how to do something. The only one here whom he would rather not have teaching him anything, was JJ. But it didn’t turn out badly at all. In fact, Rin had a pretty good idea once he had mastered the support scull.

“Hey, Haru,” he said. “Let’s see who can hold this up for longer, you or me.”

And that was why, as Viktor finished instructing Yuuri and they turned to look at how far everyone else were, they were met with the sight of everyone staring at two pairs of legs.

“What’s going on?” Yuuri wondered.

“Heck if I know,” Yuri, who was standing next to Yuuri, muttered.

“If I had to take a guess, I’d say Rin and Haru are trying to see who can hold the position longest,” Makoto replied in Japanese.

“Why?” Yuuri asked, also responding in Japanese.

“They’re rivals,” Makoto answered.

“Rivals?” Yuuri asked.

“Yuuri,” Viktor said. “Did you find out what’s going on?” he asked.

Yuuri got busy explaining everything to the other figure skaters, and while he did so, one pair of legs were pulled back under the surface and Rin’s head broke through only a second later. As he stood upright, Haruka’s legs disappeared under the surface too and he also stood upright.

“Haru-chan’s the winner,” Nagisa announced.

“I now!” Rin exclaimed, irritated with himself.

“Congratulations Haruka,” Viktor said. “Now, since you’re done, I think it’s time we begin with the next basic skill you need to learn,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to remember how much I think this story suck, exactly how bad I think it is. and why I took so long finishing it. I wonder if I should keep publishing it. It's not meant to be taken seriously or anything, but I wish I would stop thinking that it's outright stupid. Now I kinda wish I hadn't decided to slow down the publishing process.


	12. Lifesaving

“Nagisa, Rei, Makoto, Rin and Haruka, I want to ask you something,” Viktor said as everyone stood back in front of him, facing him. “Do you know of the eggbeater kick?” he asked.

“Eggbeater?” Nagisa asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is that like when you try to crack an eggshell or something? Why would that suddenly become a type of kick?”

“I… don’t know… eggbeater kick,” Makoto said, pronouncing the new term with a thicker Japanese accent than usual.

“I haven’t heard of it before,” Rin said.

“Well, I have,” Rei said, smiling proudly as he reached up to the glasses he wasn’t wearing at the moment. “An eggbeater kick is the one you use when you, for instance, need to save someone from drowning. It helps keeping your own body afloat and steady in the same time.”

“That’s amazing, Rei-chan!” Nagisa exclaimed. “Can you show us how it’s done?”

“Of course not!” Rei exclaimed, turning to Nagisa. “Just because I know what it’s meant for, doesn’t mean I know how to do it!”

While Nagisa and Rei were discussing whether Rei could do the eggbeater kick or not, Yuuri had managed to translate Rei’s explanation into English as everyone else knew the more important part of the conversation.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone knows exactly how to do it,” Yuuri now concluded.

“It’s okay,” Viktor said. “Everyone, sit down in the water, bending your knees as they are almost at a 90 degree angle.” He took that position himself to show how he meant. “Note that your legs has to be kept a little wider than your shoulders.” He looked at everyone. They were all watching what he was doing. “Then you start rotating your legs towards yourselves in an opposite timing. Your left leg goes clockwise and your right leg goes counterclockwise.”

Rin was first to follow and all the other swimmers followed right after him. The figure skaters were all quick to understand what they were to do, but they had a harder time doing the eggbeater kick right.

“Isn’t this basically the same as sculling, just with your legs instead of your arms?” Phichit asked.

“Seems like it,” Yuuri agreed as he started sinking again and had to start over with the eggbeater kick.

“Just for fun, those of you who can keep your balance in the water while using the eggbeater kick, try raising your arms and clapping your hands together above your heads,” Viktor said. “The point is that you need to keep yourselves steady while being able to use your arms above the surface of the water.”

Everyone gave that a go, but not everyone mastered it right away.

“I don’t want to do this, it’s hard and I look stupid,” Yuri muttered.

“At least we all look stupid,” Yuuri said, attempting a smile.

“Is that supposed to be a good thing?” Yuri asked.

“I guess so,” Yuuri said.

“Has everyone learned it?” Viktor asked. “If so, I would like us to continue. First, I want to know how many of you wouldn’t feel comfortable having your face under water without breathing for a while.”

Yuuri was first to raise his hand and JJ was next to do the same. Makoto was about to raise his hand, but it had barely broken the surface before he changed his mind and let it fall back. Rin sent him a slightly concerned look, but didn’t do anything besides that.

“Okay,” Viktor said. “What I want you to do now is to do what is called a Front Layout. It’s similar to the back layout except the fact that you’re lying face-down. You shouldn’t breathe either. Hold the position until you’re completely out of breath. Then you can stand back up.” He looked around to see if everyone understood. “Yuuri and JJ can skip, of course,” he added.

Everyone went to float, facing the bottom of the pool. The position put a lot of pressure on one mentally because they had to fight the instinct to breath while having their face underwater. It wasn’t as difficult for them to keep their bodies straight and rigid as it had been yesterday when they’d practiced the Back Layout. Now they had learned how to do it without sinking.

Makoto was first to let go of the position and stand up, quickly followed by Rei and Phichit, who gave up in approximately the same time. Next one to stand up was Yuri, followed by Nagisa. The last figure skater to stand up was Otabek. Rin and Haruka were still lying with their backs upwards in the surface of the water.

“Is it a contest again?” Yuuri asked Makoto while they were all watching Rin and Haruka.

“Probably,” Makoto said. “They like competing against each other.”

As if on cue, Haruka and Rin both broke the position in the same time and resurfaced, both completely out of breath. They both had to remove their nose-clips in order to maximize the amount of air they could breathe in.

“A… tie…” Rin breathed.

“Actually,” Yuuri stepped forward. “I think you won. Nanase-kun got into the position a bit later than you, Matsuoka-kun,” he explained.

Rin looked up at Yuuri in surprise, then smiled slightly, looking to Haruka. “You heard that? Looks like I win,” he said, smiling.

Haruka turned slightly away, a brief expression of irritation was shown on his face, but it didn’t last for long.

Viktor started talking again. “We will now move on. You still have a lot more positions to learn and I would like us to have gone over all of them today.”

“Today?!” Yuuri exclaimed.

“Exactly, Yuuri,” Viktor said, smiling. “We still have the Crane, Knight, Sailet Leg, Side Fishtail, Split Position, Tub and Vertical left. I was thinking we could do something similar to what we did yesterday.”

“But there are seven positions,” Yuri argued.

“You’re right,” Viktor agreed. “I was considering to skip the split position and leave Vertical for tomorrow, for all of us to perform together.” He explained this while still smiling.

“That does add up,” Yuuri said. “This only leaves the Crane, the Knight, Sailet Leg, Side Fishtail and Tub,” he summed up.

“Exactly,” Viktor said. “So if we get started with the Crane. For this, you take the position we practiced with the Support Scull. You drop one leg down as it is parallel to the surface, creating a 90 degree L shape,” he explained.

Everyone did as told, all mastering the position relatively quickly. Next up was the Knight where their legs were lying flat on the surface while their body was arched as the head was vertically in line with the hips. Afterwards, they were instructed to stretch up one leg, creating a complete vertical line between that leg and the head. The next position was the Sailet leg. They went back to the Back Layout and then extended one leg as it was perpendicular to the body while the other was held parallel to the surface. For the Side Fishtail, they went back to putting themselves in the upside down position and while holding that, one leg had to remain vertical while the other was lowered as it was parallel to the surface. Viktor said it had to look like a side Y position, but no one was really sure if it actually looked like that.

“Okay, we’re going to finish off with the Tub position,” Viktor said. “You keep lying on your backs while you pull your legs up to your chest. Your shins and top of your feet have to be dry while you remain like that. It’s kinda similar to when you’re in a bathtub,” he explained while smiling. Everyone performed the position without much trouble.

Next up was the learning in pairs. Viktor demanded for all of them to find a new partner, but still stick to one figure skater and one swimmer in the same pair. So Haruka ended up working with Yuuri. Rin and Otabek paired up. Phichit swam up to Rei, Makoto moved over to stand near JJ, signaling that they were going to work together, and Yuri sent Nagisa a glare that was supposed to mean that they were going to work together, but ended up seeming more like it was the last thing he wanted.

The pairs worked out fine. The only issues were that Makoto and JJ had a lot of trouble in their communication, and Nagisa and Yuri were also suffering from problems, but this was primarily because their personalities just didn’t work well together. Viktor just sat and watched while finding it all amusing.


	13. Small Problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow I forgot to publish this chapter or something like that. I apologize if it has been confusing. And on top of that, while trying to fix the problem, I deleted the first chapter, so I had to fix that too. I really need to watch what I do.

“You’re off for today,” Viktor said as everyone had finished showing the position they had needed to practice. “But before you start relaxing, I have another task for you.” He was smiling secretively as he said so, as if it was going to be something fun.

“What’s that?” Rin asked.

“I want you to make a small routine using the positions you’ve learned, no more than a minute or so, and I think we should go with pairs again. This time, there will be no rules as to whom you can partner up with. I recommend that you all go watch some videos of professional synchronized swimmers to understand a bit more of how it’s done.”

“How much time will we have?” Yuuri asked. He already had Phichit’s arm wrapped around his shoulders.

“We will have a short lesson tomorrow where you learn Vertical, the rest of the day will be spent on you practicing. Depending on how far you get I’ll give you an extra day,” Viktor said.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa kicked off from the bottom of the pool, swimming towards Rei at full speed, hitting him so forcefully that he was about to fall over.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to drawn me?!” Rei yelled.

Nagisa stood up and looked thoughtfully at Rei. “I wasn’t doing that. I just wasn’t watching where I was swimming,” he said.

“That’s the same thing!” Rei yelled.

“Pu-Plisetsky-kun? Do you want to… pair up with me?” Makoto asked.

Yuri didn’t know how to answer at first. He took a look over his shoulder at Otabek, who was standing off, slightly to himself.

Rin, who had heard Makoto’s question to Yuri, quickly moved a few steps to the side as he was able to wrap an arm around Haruka’s shoulder.

“You don’t mind teaming up with me, right Haru?” he asked.

Haruka didn’t answer, but Rin knew what he was thinking. Communication would be easier like this. He hadn’t done this out of concern for Haruka, that was only the excuse. His primary excuse was that he didn’t like JJ, who had been turning towards him just then. Therefore, the only way to get around it was to act like he wanted to make Haruka’s situation easier.

Yuri, Makoto, JJ and Otabek all saw what Rin just did and knew that they were the only ones remaining. This meant Yuri found himself in a situation he had never thought he’d end up in. Makoto clearly wanted to partner up with him, same did Otabek, and he wanted to partner up with Otabek, of course. But a hint of consideration was awakening inside of him. Makoto had trouble communicating with all of them, that was painfully obvious, and JJ sometimes lacked the ability to empathize, which barely made a partnership between them work out.

Yuri looked between Makoto and Otabek. From the look in their eyes, both had somewhat realized the dilemma he was in. He was running out of time. He didn’t want them to realize the situation because that would mean that one of them would influence it, and Yuri didn’t want that.

“Okay,” he said, almost without thinking. “We work together, Tachibana.”

Makoto opened his mouth, as if to protest, but not a sound came out as Yuri made his way over to him as they could stand together and signal that they were a pair. It wasn’t until then, Makoto found his words and could say what he wanted to say.

“You want to be with Altin-san, right?” he asked.

“Da,” Yuri replied.

“Huh?” Makoto asked, not understanding the word.

“It’s ‘yes’ in Russian,” Yuri explained, making a small sigh as he hoped Makoto would understand.

“Da…,” Makoto said with a thoughtful expression. He kept that on for a little while, until he turned to Yuuri and asked him something in Japanese.

Yuuri came over and called Otabek, JJ and Yuri over too as they didn’t need to yell all the way across the pool. The others didn’t need to know what was going on.

“Tachibana asked me to translate for you, so…” Yuuri looked to Makoto, silently asking him to go on with whatever he needed to say. “Since Yuri wants to partner up with Otabek and Otabek doesn’t seem to want to partner up with JJ, we could either split up to form new pairs where Otabek and Yuri work together and I partner up with JJ,” Yuuri translated word by word.

“Idiot,” Yuri muttered.

“Or we could keep the groups and work closely together as Yuri and Otabek still get to work closely together, but we will use different routines,” Yuuri translated.

“I’d personally rather the latter,” JJ said. “I mean, it is easier to talk to a loner whom you have a language in common with than someone whom you don’t have any languages in common with.”

Otabek nodded his head. “Either one’s fine though,” he said. “You decide, Yuri.”

“Huh?” Yuri asked, not being entirely sure of how they could all leave the decision up to him. “Then… the latter option,” he decided.

Yuuri translated the result of the discussion and Makoto smiled. “Okay,” he said before thanking Yuuri for the help, in Japanese.

“Rei-chan, we should go to my place to plan out the routine!” Nagisa exclaimed.

“I disagree,” Rei said. “My place is better, since it holds a lot of theory books about swimming.”

“What do we need those for? We’re doing Figure Swimming, aren’t we?” Nagisa asked.

“No, we’re doing synchronized swimming,” Rei argued.

“Same-same but different,” Nagisa said.

“Haru, I’ll just come with you guys home today,” Rin said.

“Do whatever you want,” Haruka said, not really caring whatever Rin decided to do.

“We go to my place,” Makoto said to Yuri. “If Rin goes, Haru’s place will be… full.”

“Okay,” Yuri said, understanding what Makoto meant. It did make sense. Along with Rin and Haruka, Yuuri and Phichit would be there, and so would JJ and Otabek, and Viktor for that matter.

“You can eat too… with… my family,” Makoto said.

“That’ll spare me the mackerel,” Yuri muttered in an irritated tone. He was feeling relieved though. Now he had a good excuse to not eat that stupid fish. One round of it was enough.

Makoto laughed. “That’s so like Haru,” he said in Japanese, causing a confused look to appear on Yuri’s face. Makoto stopped laughing to answer the other properly. “Haru likes… Makraru,” he said.

“It’s Mackerel!” Yuri exclaimed, causing everyone in the pool to look over at them.

There was a short moment of silence where everyone just plainly stared at Yuri who had unwillingly brought their attention upon himself. Then Rin broke the silence as he started laughing.

“Good luck with the communication,” he said to Yuri.

“We should get going now, I’m kinda tired,” Yuuri said.

“Yeah, go for a shower and then rest up,” Phichit agreed as he climbed out of the pool along with Yuuri.

“Remember to stretch,” Viktor reminded them. “We didn’t get to do it yesterday, so you should do it today.”

Everyone got out of the pool and went to stretch, using their individual routines. Makoto, Haruka, Nagisa and Rei did the same things. They were all used to stretching together.

Viktor sat and observed all of them, smiling. He was thinking about how well things seemed to go in terms of teamwork and communication. Most seemed to be talking, somewhat. They were all starting to decide whom of the strangers they didn’t get along with and whom they did. Viktor personally liked everyone.

Viktor’s smile widened slightly when he thought of Yuri. He wasn’t the type of person who would approach a stranger willingly if there were alternative options. However, aside from Yuuri and Phichit, he was the one who had interacted the most with the five Japanese swimmers. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so strange since both JJ and Otabek had trouble with the social aspects of communicating. He would have to expand their contact to the strangers. That went for Haruka too, just the other way around. Although he could communicate to some extent, he didn’t do it at all. Viktor then decided that he would make it his alternative mission, to have JJ, Otabek and Haruka overcome some of their social problems and gain a friend amongst the opposite group.


	14. The Real Deal

They had needed two full days to plan out and practice their routines. Viktor had realized that as the first day was coming to an end. Yuuri and Phichit had been in the water for several hours, Makoto and Yuri had also been in the water for a while, along with Otabek and JJ. However, due to Nagisa not taking it too seriously and Rin and Haruka disagreeing more than they agreed on anything, the two remaining groups were still discussing what they should even do in their routines.

After practice on the first day, Viktor had therefore called all four swimmers over to help them plan a routine. Helping Rei and Nagisa didn’t take too long. Their conversation was a bit limited because Nagisa and Rei didn’t speak entirely perfect English and Viktor didn’t speak entirely perfect Japanese. But once the two of them got the assistance, planning the routine went much easier than before and they were done within half an hour.

Rin and Haruka were worse off. The first time Viktor dared to ask if they had anything particular they wanted, Haruka was first to shake his head and Rin then asked if he even cared about the project. Haruka sent the same question back at Rin, creating a black cloud of a bad vibe.

Viktor then suggested a handful of ideas and Rin and Haruka only had to say if they agreed or disagreed with it. The planning did go a bit easier after that, especially because the two swimmers stopped discussing and became very focused.

“I watched a video last night” Rin said near the end as they had almost finished planning the routine. “It was of a pair of swimmers where one lifted the other up. Is that possible to attempt?” he asked.

“Not in this exorcise,” Viktor replied. “That’s what I think is called a lift. We will get to perform them later, but I don’t think you should attempt anything like that now. Either way, I wouldn’t do one in a pair like this, if the internet sources are to be believed.”

“Too hard?” Rin asked in a slightly daring tone.

“Maybe a pair like Yurio and Makoto, or Rei and Nagisa, could carry it off because of the difference in weight and strength, but either one of you two would be too heavy for the other to get above the water like that.” Viktor said. “But this is something we will talk more about once you have performed your routines.” He said, closing the subject at that.

Rin sighed and allowed the subject to fall as they could finish planning the routine and go home.

* * *

 

They spent all of the following day practicing their routines, each team taking up a corner of the pool. Viktor watched and helped out wherever it was needed while he planned out what else they should do aside from practicing the group routine he had planned out. He would need to instruct them on whatever practical information they would need. The swimmers would probably need a lesson in interpretation. The figure skaters would also, still, need to become more comfortable with the ice in its liquefied form.

It was with these thoughts in his head that Viktor passed the day while the others were working hard on learning their routines to perfection. They didn’t go home before the sun started setting and at that time, they were all exhausted and didn’t spend much time talking.

At Haruka’s place, the host cooked dinner and they all sat down to eat it slowly, too physically exhausted to really pick up the pace. Only Viktor ate at a normal speed and just sat, watching the others lowering their heads over their dinner. The meal consisted of mackerel again, but unlike this morning where Yuri, JJ and even Phichit had complained, no one said a word about it now, too tired to care.

Thankfully, everything was back to normal on the morning of the following day. Yuri, JJ and Phichit complained about the mackerel and Yurio even had Otabek voice his dissatisfaction with the lack of variation in the food.

“Nanase-kun, you can make more than mackerel, right?” Yuuri asked, insecurely.

Haruka only nodded his head in response, not saying anything besides that. Either Yuuri’s hint wasn’t understood, or Haruka chose not to understand.

After cleaning up, they all went down to meet up with Makoto and then they headed to the pool where the groups would take turns doing the routines.

Each group did really well. Everyone knew their routines to perfection, even the two groups who had had trouble planning out their routines made no mistakes in the positions or any other part of the short routines. The entire event was done within an hour and Viktor called everyone over as they could sit on the poolside and listen to him talking about whatever else he needed to go through before they could begin the real routine.

“Alright,” Viktor said, holding up a sketch block where he had made a few visual explanations on what he was about to talk about. “First off, I would like to discuss the lifts in synchronized swimming. A lift is where a team of synchronized swimmers propel one teammate out of the water. They are common in older age groups and higher level performance. And even if this is beginner level, I think we should attempt a few lifts. They are primarily artistic patterns made to impress the judges. As far as I understand, the view upon lifts is slightly similar to the view upon quads in figure skating.” Viktor said.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t do it…” Yuuri said. “It is probably dangerous, especially if you don’t have the skill level it requires. What if one of us got hurt?”

“None of you will get hurt if you’re just being careful,” Viktor said, smiling. “And raise your hand before you speak Yuuri. We’re in class.”

Yuuri wondered when the poolside became a classroom and the gathering of figure skaters and swimmers a class, as Viktor continued the lesson.

“There are three positions in a standard team lift,” Viktor said. “The Flyer, who is the one to be lifted above the water, therefore they have to be small and light and flexible.”

“So Yuri-chan could be a Flyer?” Nagisa asked while raising his hand.

“Yes,” Viktor said. “In fact, it was Yurio I had in mind for that position.”

“No thanks,” Yuri muttered, turning his head away.

Viktor ignored the decline of the offer as he continued. “The next position is the base, someone of more average size and with strong legs and core. Almost everyone here could be a good candidate for that position.”

“What about the rest?” JJ asked, raising his hand with a reluctant expression. Like most of the other figure skaters, the idea of playing class didn’t suit him well.

“Anyone who is not Flyer or Base will provide with strength and support. This is needed to give the flyer enough force to execute their jump,” Viktor explained.

Nagisa got a thoughtful expression on his face before he turned to Yuri, who was sitting directly behind him.

“Yuri-chan, you don’t want to be the flyer, right?” he asked in English.

“No,” Yuri replied. “And what’s with the Yuri-chan?”

“Then, do you mind if I ask to be the flyer?” Nagisa asked. “I really want to.” He completely ignored Yuri’s last comment about the nickname.

“Do whatever you want,” Yuri muttered.

“Okay,” Nagisa said, smiling as he turned back to face Viktor and raised his hand, waiting for Viktor to point at him before speaking. “Vik-chan, Yuri-chan doesn’t want to be the Flyer, so can I have that position?” he asked, still in English.

Viktor thought about that for a moment. “I’m not sure it’s safe for all the lifts, but you can do one or two. You are small enough,” he smiled.

Nagisa smiled victoriously as he turned to Rei, who was sitting next to him. “Rei-chan, did you hear, I get to be a Flyer!”

“At any rate,” Viktor spoke up. “It’s time to get serious. Now that we have talked about the positions of lifts and planned that out, it’s time to talk about the routine I’ve planned. I will explain the different types of lifts as we get to them, so listen up!” he said, smiling, eager to get on with all the things he had planned.


	15. Love and Care

“I will start by explaining what we’re going to do in our routine, and then I’ll have you all guessing the theme I’ve chosen?”

“Theme?” Makoto asked.

“Exactly like in Figure Skating, you need a theme,” Viktor explained.

“In Figure Skating, one of the ways to score points is interpretation,” Yuuri explained further, in Japanese. “Of course you score technical points, but if you don’t manage to interpret the theme while you skate, you are not likely to score as many points.”

“But we’re not going to score points for this, are we?” Makoto asked, slightly nervously

“I don’t think so…” Yuuri said in a thoughtful tone. “But… Interpretation is still important to the sport.”

“What are you two talking about?” Viktor asked. “Did you hear what I just said?” he asked.

“Eh…?” Yuuri turned to Viktor with a surprised expression, same did Makoto. None of them had heard what Viktor had said, or even if he had said something.

“Eh… we were talking about if we needed to show anyone this,” Yuuri said.

“I was actually thinking about that,” Viktor said. “I could see if I could get in touch with the Japanese synchronized swimming team and ask them if they want to come see,” he smiled. “At any rate, what was I talking about just before?”

“Sorry…” Yuuri muttered. “I don’t think either of us heard,”

“Sorry,” Makoto apologized as well.

Viktor made a slightly irritated expression before he started over. “I was explaining the first step of our routine,” he said. Then he explained it once more before he went on to explaining the rest of the routine, step by step.

“The first lift comes here,” Viktor said. “This is the Platform Lift. In this, the Base, in this lift, let’s call the position Plank, lays down in a Back Layout, underneath the surface of the water, supported by the other teammates. They are using the eggbeater kick. The Flyer sits on the torso of the Base in a squad position, standing up as they reach the surface. For this lift, I was thinking that Yurio should be the Flyer, then Otabek can be the plank.”

At these words, Yuri and Otabek exchanged a quick look, both letting a small smile show on their faces. Yuri found that if Otabek was going to be the base, he didn’t mind being the flyer as much.

Viktor went on, explaining a bit more of the routine. He only went over the positions by mentioning them and didn’t slow down until he reached the next lift that would be performed.

“For this lift, we can use Nagisa as the Flyer,” he said. “This is the Stack Lift, considered a more modern version of the Platform Lift. The Base sits in a squad position a little under the surface of the water whereas the rest of the team is supporting his legs and feet. The Flyer then climbs onto the Base’s shoulders and the other teammates extend their arms and the Bas and Flyer both stand up.”

“Who’s going too be Base?” Nagisa asked in English.

“I was thinking Rei, because you seem to trust each other, but I’m not sure,” Viktor said.

“I trust everyone,” Nagisa declared.

“I doubt everyone trust you though,” Rei commented in Japanese.

“That’s not nice to say, Rei-chan,” Nagisa complained.

“Don’t get the wrong idea!” Rei exclaimed. “I just meant that not everyone know us well enough that they will trust us, not the figure skaters anyway.”

Nagisa smiled, nodding his head. “I know that Rei-chan,” he said.

Viktor went on to explain the rest of the routine. Along with the Platform Lift and the Stack Lift he had already explained, he planned another Stack Lift where Yuri would be lifted, and then one where the team would be divided in two, as both Yuri and Nagisa would be lifted up in a Stack Lift.

“Question,” Rin raised his hand as Viktor was done explaining the routine. “Aren’t there more lifts than Platform and Stack?” he asked.

“There is something called a Throw Lift, where the swimmer is thrown. It is much similar to a Stack Lift except the swimmer jumps off from the Base’s shoulders at the peak of the lift and perform some acrobatics midair. I was thinking of making one of our Stack Lifts into that, but it depends on how well you all do,” Viktor informed them.

“But if we are going to do it, shouldn’t we do it properly with as many lifts as possible?” Phichit asked.

“You’re right,” Viktor agreed. “But the Throw Lift seems a bit risky, so I’m not going to let you do it just yet. Anyways, can you guess the theme based on what I’ve explained?” he asked.

“Haru… can you guess the theme?” Makoto leaned towards Haruka to ask this, but the other just shook his head.

It was the same with everybody else. No one had a clue on what the theme could be. In the end, Viktor had to say it due to the lack of response he got.

“The theme I have picked is Love and Care. You can read into it whatever you want, but I need you to try and express those two things as you perform.” Viktor told them.

“Love…? Care…?” Haruka muttered

“You can’t doubt what that means,” Rin said.

Haruka didn’t answer. He did know what love meant, or at least somewhat. He wasn’t entirely sure of the word “Care” though. It wasn’t one he had normally needed in English class.

“I don’t get it,” Rin declared. “How are we supposed to express stuff like that through some silent water-dance?” he asked.

Yuri snorted at this, not being able to believe that the others couldn’t understand how they were supposed to do interpretation. The fact that they didn’t know this just irritated him.

“We will do some practice in interpretation later on,” Viktor said. “Perhaps tonight or tomorrow night. We should probably focus on the Love and Care.”

“So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?” JJ asked.

“I don’t know…” Viktor said.

“We could go around, all of us, and have fun together,” Phichit said. “We still have most of the afternoon and I’d like to go sightseeing!”

“Not like there’s much to see,” Rin muttered.

“Let’s go to the beach!” Nagisa exclaimed.

“I’d rather skate,” JJ said.

“It’s hot out here,” Yuri complained.

“Leroy-san… I don’t think there is a Skate place out here,” Makoto said in English.

“I heard it’s a fishing town, so let’s go to the sea!” Phichit decided.

“Can we go to the sea?” Yuuri asked Makoto in Japanese.

“Yeah, you should come see it, both the harbor and the beach,” Makoto said while smiling. “It’s not like there’s much interesting to see besides that anyway.”

“Great,” Yuuri answered. “Should we change then?”

“No,” Makoto answered. “Just wash. You can go swim in the ocean while we’re at the beach and cool off. It is a little hot today,” he said.

“I’ll tell them that,” Yuuri said before he turned to the other figure skaters and did just that.

“I still wouldn’t mind if we went skating,” JJ said, smiling.

Yuuri didn’t say anything, but he actually agreed with JJ’s statement. He too wanted to go skating, and he would like it if the swimmers came with them in the rink too.

“Let’s go!” Nagisa exclaimed, standing up. He had now also heard that they were going to the beach, and he was eager to get there. Everyone else stood as well to go wash themselves and pull on some clothes over their swimsuits before they all went to the beach.


	16. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEADS UP!   
> I messed up somehow while publishing chapter 13, so it wasn't published. The problem has been fixed. I really am sorry if there was something that didn't make sense to you. It wasn't my intention to confuse everyone.

The trip to the beach went surprisingly well. Everyone managed to get something out of it. Nagisa got to run around and have fun with Phichit, taking pictures of everything important and anything unimportant too. Rei was busy trying to keep the two of them in check, but even he managed to find some beautiful things to look at.

Rin and Haruka got to swim for a time, they ended up racing. Rin got his win and Haruka got to float around in the water as he pleased after that. Rin then went back to shore and ended up speaking to Otabek, whom he found a new friend in.

JJ and Makoto also spoke for a short time and once JJ got over Makoto’s terrible English, they actually found that they got along fine. Then Nagisa invited JJ and Makoto to join him, Rei and Phichit in their exploring of their surroundings. Makoto declined, but JJ agreed to come along since there was nothing better to do.

Then Makoto went to speak to Yuri and picked up on a few Russian words from their conversation. Rin overheard their conversation and remarked that Makoto should probably focus on learning English instead of Russian.

While Rin, Makoto, Otabek and Yuri were talking, and everyone else were having fun in their own way, Yuuri and Viktor took the liberty to take some time to themselves, just the two of them.

 

The following day, it was time to get started on practicing the routine that Viktor had planned. To begin with, they went over the routine in a really slow pace, skipping the lifts. This was for the sake of everyone learning the positions and the order they came in.

“Haru!” Rin yelled, standing up while they were about to make new positions. “Quit swimming into me!”

Haruka stood up too and looked at Rin with an expressionless face. “You’re the one swimming into me” he said without even blinking.

“That’s a lie!” Rin exclaimed.

“Now, now,” Makoto stood too and went to them. “This pool isn’t that big and certainly not deep enough for the synchronized swimming… we need to be a bit considerate of each other. I’ve already bumped into Katsuki-san once and Leroy-san twice,” he said.

“I have only bumped into Haru,” Rin said. “That’s what frustrates me the most.”

“I only bumped into Rin,” Haruka said.

“We should probably just be a little extra careful then,” Makoto said.

“Hear that!” Rin yelled in English. “Since we have a little too little space we should watch out. Watch out!”

“Nice thinking you three!” Viktor approved. “But let’s all start over because you are not swimming with the rest.”

Everyone felt slightly irritated as they started on the routine from the top again. They practiced the routine about three times, each time picking up the pace a little bit.

“Yurio, Otabek,” Viktor called as they had finished the routine for the third time. “I want us to attempt the first lift, the Platform Lift, if you two are ready.” He smiled at them as he finished. He wasn’t exactly planning on giving them a choice in the matter.

Otabek and Yuri exchanged a quick look before they both nodded their heads.

“How?” Yuri asked.

“Let’s start from the position before then,” Viktor said, “And then we slowly go through the lift.” He quickly made a reintroduction of the Platform Lift as everyone were in on what was going to happen, and then he told them to begin.

The team swam around before they took their assigned posts. Otabek went to lie in the Back Layout, a bit beneath the surface of the water, with everyone else supporting him from below. Yuri then swam up to sit in a squat position on Otabek’s torso. Everyone looked around themselves to make sure that they were all ready for this before the remaining team pushed Otabek and Yuri upward. As they did, Yuri slowly stood up, trying to keep his balance on top of Otabek. It wasn’t going well though.

“Yuri! Sit back down!” Viktor yelled as he saw that Yuri was about to fall, but he was one second too late as Yuri was already midair. He fell and hit the surface of the water. Luckily he didn’t hit anyone on his way down.

“Yuri!” Otabek moved from his position to get to Yuri, but before he could, the younger boy resurfaced, attempting to cough up the mouthful of water he had accidentally swallowed.

“This water taste like shit,” he cursed.

The others resurfaced as well to all look at Yuri and see if he was okay.

“What happened?” Yuuri asked, looking at Viktor who was the only one who had seen it all.

Viktor sent Yuri a thoughtful look before he answered Yuuri’s question. “Yurio lost his balance and fell. That’s about what happened,” he said, sounding calm. “It seems like he doesn’t trust the rest of you,” he said in an evenly calm tone.

“Hah?” Yuri asked, having picked up on Viktor’s words. He wasn’t going to buy that one.

“Well, it is understandable,” Viktor said. “You’re used to relying on yourself for your own balance, not others, so you become insecure.”

“No way,” Yuri dismissed.

“But Yuri-chan trust Ota-chan, right?” Nagisa asked in English. “Isn’t that enough?”

“That’s not helping if Yuri doesn’t trust the rest of us,” Rin said.

“Plisetsky-kun us can trust,” Makoto said in English.

“What kind of sentence is that?” Rin wondered aloud, earning an apologetic smile from Makoto.

As they were discussing, Haruka made his way up to Yuri, looking him into the eyes. His face showed no expression and this caused Yuri to wonder what he wanted.

“Trust us,” Haruka told him, in Japanese.

Yuri raised his eyebrow, tilting his head a bit. He wondered if Haruka even wanted him to understand whatever he was saying.

“He’s right,” Yuuri said. “Yuri, you need to trust all of us.”

“I get it, Pork Cutlet!” Yuri yelled.

“Good,” Viktor said. “Let’s start over again, from where we began before.”

And so, they started over. Otabek allowed himself to be held up by the others and Yuri moved up to sit in a squat position on his torso, then the remaining team lifted them up and Yuri stood up. The lift reached its peak and Viktor made a loud clapping sound. Before they began the routines this morning, they had already agreed that this meant they needed to stop whatever they were doing and focus.

Yuri then sat back down in the squat position and the team moved away from Otabek as he and Yuri could get under the water and Yuri could get off. Then everyone stood, turning their face towards Viktor.

“Ah!” Viktor said. “I’m glad you figured how to break the formation properly without me needing to say anything.”

“Was that all you wanted?” Yuri asked.

“Yes,” Viktor replied. “You did good this time, Yuri,” he complimented. “Overall, I actually think the lift was more safely performed this time around.”

Everyone exchanged smiles. They were happy that they had done well on the lift and managed to successfully complete it.

“Next up is Nagisa’s and Rei’s Stack Lift,” Viktor said.

Starting from the previous position, everyone attempted to perform the Stack Lift with Rei as the Base and Nagisa as the Flyer. This went well, even if Nagisa misunderstood what he was to do and ended up sitting on Rei’s shoulders as they broke the surface. The second attempt went better.

“How come you didn’t fall,” Yuri asked Nagisa as they all caught a break after having performed the two lifts.

“Hmm…” Nagisa thought. “I don’t know… I guess I generally trust my friends, and everyone’s my friend, so I trust you,” he said. “You should try being friend with everyone too, Yuri-chan,” Nagisa said in English.

“What is with that Yuri-chan?” Yuri muttered.

“-Chan is just what I add to the names of all my friends,” Nagisa answered, smiling at Yuri.

“So you really are friends with everyone,” Yuri muttered, unable to comprehend how that could be. Trust and friendship weren’t exactly things he gave up easily, so how could this guy do it without a second thought? That issue was going to puzzle Yuri for the next little while.


	17. Variation

It was the third day of them practicing Viktor’s routine. They had just finished again for today and everyone was exhausted from the physical strain the synchronized swimming was putting on their bodies.

“I’m tired…” Yuuri muttered in Japanese. His head was resting on his arms that were resting on the poolside. The rest of his body was in the water. His eyes were closed.

“Me too,” Phichit replied in English as he came up by Yuuri’s side and took the same position as him, also closing his eyes. “I’m so tired I couldn’t even go add new photos to my block even if I wanted to.”

“Then you’ve gotta be tired, Phichit-kun,” Yuuri commented, still not opening his eyes.

“I’m so tired I couldn’t even complain over the mackerel we’re having for dinner even if I wanted to,” JJ who was leaning against the poolside on the opposite side of Yuuri, said.

“You couldn’t?” Yuri asked. He had been in the process of floating past them to a free spot by the poolside where he could rest his own body.

“Too much trouble. I’d be happy with anything eatable,” JJ said.

“That’s not like you,” Yuuri said, turning his head and opening one eye slightly to look at JJ.

“No,” JJ said. “But since we’ve had it so often, I’m starting to doubt that he can make anything other than mackerel.”

“He did say he could,” Yuuri said.

“Then I wish he would,” Yuri complained. He looked to Otabek who was beside him and the other nodded his head in agreement.

“Variation wouldn’t be so bad,” he said.

Makoto let out a sigh. He had been within hearing distance and had managed to comprehend bits and pieces of the conversation.

“Don’t tell me Haru has cooked nothing but mackerel ever since you arrived,” he said in Japanese. He sounded extremely exhausted as he said it.

“Well… now that I think about it, it might actually be the case,” Yuuri answered.

“It makes no matter if you just eat it,” Viktor said. He was sitting down on the poolside with his legs in the water and was by far the one with the most energy in the area.

“Everyone needs variation in food,” Makoto said. “Our manager, Kou-chan said so. Haru may be able to cook, but he is not known for eating a balanced meal. Maybe your lack of energy is the result of having the same dish so often.”

“Are you saying that the fact that we are this exhausted is Nanase-kun’s fault?” Yuuri asked, raising his head to look at Makoto in slight surprise.

“No! Well… yeah… maybe,” Makoto said. He was silent for a little while as he was thinking of a way to solve the problem. “Is there something you’d like to have?” he asked.

“I’ll ask,” Yuuri said before he translated Makoto’s question to English.

“Not mackerel,” Yuri was the first to say.

“Anything eatable,” JJ said.

“I kinda miss vegetables and meat,” Phichit said.

“Anything but mackerel,” Otabek said in agreement to what Yuri had said earlier.

“If Nanase-kun can make anything but mackerel, probably something that involves meat, I guess everyone’s happy,” Yuuri said to Makoto.

“I suggest we have pork cutlet bowls,” Viktor said in English, causing a small joyful spark to appear in Yuuri’s eyes.

“Pork cutlet bowls?” Makoto repeated the English words, not being sure he understood what kind of dish they were talking about.

“Pork cutlet bowls,” Yuuri translated the name of the dish into Japanese. “They’re good at making it at my family’s hot-spring.”

Makoto nodded his head and turned to Haruka who was floating around in the water like he would do any day. “Haru,” he said, claiming the attention of the other.

Haruka stood up and looked at Makoto with an indifferent expression.

“Haru, I talked to Katsuki-san and the others. I think they would like a variation of food.” Makoto said.

Haruka looked briefly at the figure skaters and then back at Makoto, now listening to what Makoto was saying.

“Nikiforov-san suggested pork cutlet bowls. Apparently they are good at making them in Katsuki-san’s family. Think you can make that?” Makoto asked.

“Probably,” Haruka replied

“Then we can make-“ Makoto began but Haruka opened his mouth and interrupted him.

“I’ll make it tonight,” he said, dismissing the idea of Makoto entering the kitchen.

“Okay,” Makoto said. “But Haru, I think you should try to variate the food a bit more since you’re the only one who can live solely on rice and mackerel.”

Haruka nodded his head as he made his way to the poolside and climbed out of the pool. He looked briefly at Yuuri. “Katsuki, we need to go buy groceries… please,” the last was added in an attempt to sound less rude, but neither Yuuri, nor Makoto were really sure it helped.

“Okay,” Yuuri replied, dragging himself out of the pool and went to go with Haruka.

Makoto shook his head as he watched them leave, thinking on how Haruka still hadn’t learned to speak politely, even after needing to practice it in middle school.

* * *

 

Because Haruka and Yuuri had gone shopping, Makoto ended up walking with Viktor and the other figure skaters to Haruka’s place, leading the way and also leading them in through the back door. The others were shocked that it was open, but Makoto just shrugged at it and told them that it had probably never been locked in all the time they had been there.

“Haruka doesn’t mind you doing this?” Viktor asked Makoto in Japanese.

“Sometimes I suspect him for leaving the door open, just so I can enter without trouble,” Makoto replied.

“Oh,” Viktor said, slightly surprised.

After they had been waiting for some time in Haruka’s living room, the front door opened and Haruka and Yuuri entered, each carrying a bag full of ingredients for pork cutlet bowls.

“How did you get in?” Yuuri asked in English as he came in and saw everyone sitting in the living room.

“The back door,” Haruka answered in Japanese. No one knew if he had understood what Yuuri was saying or if he had just managed to guess correctly.

He took Yuuri to the kitchen, demanding him to help with the cooking process.

“I thought you said you could cook other things than mackerel,” Yuuri said as he stepped into the kitchen, which he had only been in in short periods at a time.

“I do. I’ve never made pork cutlet before,” Haruka said.

“Neither have I,” Yuuri muttered to himself before he started making an attempt at instructing Haruka in how to make pork cutlet bowls. Haruka listened and acted accordingly, sometimes allowing his own experiences to take over, when Yuuri’s instructions weren’t adding up to the basics of cooking.

Makoto and the figure skaters waited for about an hour while Haruka and Yuuri were working in the kitchen. Luckily, the food was worth the wait. Not only did they get the variation they all craved, but they got it in the form of another delicious meal. Now all that was left was to hope and pray that Haruka would listen to Makoto and start variating the food a bit more than before.


	18. Fast Forward

They were progressively getting better at synchronized swimming, Viktor had noticed this as around two weeks had passed since he and the other figure skaters had arrived at Iwatobi. He had just finished watching a video of the Russian synchronized swimming team to get inspiration for variation in the routine. He had been doing that almost every day ever since they started practicing the routine and had been adding small changes to it every now and then.

“You’re doing well!” he called out to the others, in the pool, as they finished practicing their routine and moved over to lean against the edge of the pool and rest their bodies for a little while.

“You serious?” Yuuri asked, slightly out of breath. “We messed up most parts.”

“He wasn’t looking,” Yuri said. “He was looking at his phone.”

“It feels like he’s looking at his phone more than he is looking at us,” JJ said.

“Agreed,” Rin said.

“Try one more time then,” Viktor said. “I promise I’ll look this time.”

“We’d appreciate that,” Yuri said in a cold tone before he started swimming back to the middle.

“One more time,” Yuuri said in Japanese as the members of Iwatobi Swim Club would also be in on what was going on.

Then everyone else turned around and followed Yuri back to the center of the pool, where they would begin the routine.

Viktor leaned over to restart the music, he had chosen the piece long ago and it was that he had based the theme on, and of course, the situation as well.

Everyone began the routine using the positions and movements they had learned about two weeks ago. It was slowly starting to become a habit and Viktor was happy to see that. He wondered if he should give them a break sometime soon. They had been practicing synchronized swimming every single day for two weeks straight, not taking a single day off. The only time when they hadn’t spent all day practicing was when Viktor had introduced the lifts to them. After that lesson, they had spent the rest of the day around the harbor and beach.

The first lift was about to begin and Viktor lifted his head to pay extra close attention to the team. Yuri rose from the water and fell back down again after a very short while. The routine continued with the team’s movements mostly blurred by the water and the reflections of the sunlight.

Not long after, the next lift was supposed to begin. Viktor observed how the team gathered underneath the surface of the water and how first Nagisa and then Rei appeared. They were raising above the surface, Nagisa standing on Rei’s shoulders. He smiled and Viktor felt like the young high school student was smiling at him.

Then he did something unexpected. Nagisa jumped off from Rei’s shoulders, attempted at a flip and failed. He was falling with his front towards the pool. His head was slightly lower than the rest of his body. It was as if time was standing still as the blonde boy was falling and Viktor heard a loud ‘NO’ being exclaimed inside his head. But of course, no one heard that, and it was too late to do anything. As Nagisa landed, his forehead crashed into the edge of the pool before he fell back into the water.

Almost in the same moment, Rei lost his balance and a shadow shot from the group of people who were supposed to support Rei. The shadow was quickly making its way towards Nagisa, as easily as a fish in water, and a moment later, Haruka’s head broke the surface. He was holding Nagisa up. The younger’s head was resting on his shoulder. His eyes were closed and blood was running from his forehead.

Viktor reached over and stopped the music before he walked over to the pool. The team’s formation fell apart and everyone came to gather around Haruka and Nagisa as well.

“I-Is he okay?” Yuuri asked.

Haruka glanced over at him without giving a reply. The question had been pretty stupid since the answer was obvious. Nagisa was certainly not okay.

“Makoto,” Haruka made a gesture with one hand, signaling for Makoto to come closer and help him get Nagisa out of the water. While Makoto was moving over to them, Haruka turned to Viktor. “Nikiforov, towel,” he demanded in Japanese.

Viktor understood and went to get a towel. While he was laying it out, Makoto climbed out of the pool and went to lift Nagisa out of the pool as Haruka could climb out. Then they helped each other carry Nagisa to where Viktor had laid the towel out and placed him on it.

“I-I’ll go find some bandages,” Rei said, also getting out of the pool. He hurried off to find some bandages while Rin got out of the pool as well, followed by the figure skaters.

“What happened?” Phichit asked Viktor.

“Ask Rei that question,” Viktor said, figuring it would be better if Rei told everyone about it instead.

Luckily, Phichit didn’t have to wait long before Rei returned with bandages. He knelt down beside Nagisa and he and Haruka helped each other wrapping a bandage around Nagisa’s head to stop the bleeding while Makoto called for an ambulance.

“What happened?” Phichit asked Rei in English.

“I’m not sure… We were lifted up and suddenly he just… jumped off my shoulders.” Rei said in Japanese.

“What for?” Phichit asked in surprise.

“He was attempting the Throw Lift,” Viktor replied. “It is similar to the Stack Lift, but the Flyer jumps off and makes some acrobatic move before landing back in the water. I should have told you not to do something like that,” he said.

“It’s not your fault, Viktor,” Yuuri said.

“He was stupid,” Yuri said, earning a glare from Rin, Rei and Haruka. Even Haruka could understand those three words.

“The ambulance will be here shortly,” Makoto said. “Only a few can go with Nagisa so who wants to?” he asked.

It was quickly decided that Rei and Haruka would go, Rei because he wanted to and thought it would only be right because of his close bond with Nagisa. Haruka never stated a reason, but when he said he wanted to go, he sounded so determined that no one dared objecting to the idea. Makoto even said that it was probably for the better. Rei and Haruka managed to get dressed before the ambulance came and they got in with Nagisa. Then the ambulance drove off.

“Interesting,” Viktor said. “I didn’t think Haruka cared so much.”

“Huh?” Yuuri was surprised. He hadn’t really thought of observing Haruka. His mind had been way too occupied with Nagisa and his state.

“He cares about everyone,” Makoto said. “He may not express it, but overtime, it’s something you learn. No matter what, you can always count on Haru.”

“But you care too, Tachibana-kun, right?” Yuuri asked.

“Of course,” Makoto said. “Rin does too.” At this, he eyed Rin briefly and the other nodded his head, confirming the statement. “If there had been room in the ambulance, both of us would have offered to come along too. But because the ambulance only can hold a certain number of people, it is better if Haru goes rather than any of us.” Makoto said.

“Why do you think that if you care about him?” Yuuri asked.

“Because Haru knows how to stay calm in situations like this,” Makoto said. “He was first to react when Nagisa fell. He knew exactly what to do and thought of everything in the situation. He always does that.”

“He wouldn’t like to hear you describe him like that,” Rin commented.

“I know,” Makoto said.

Everyone was silent for a bit, just sitting to themselves and thinking on what had happened. It was only the middle of the afternoon but no one felt like doing anything, and since there were three people missing from the team, continuing with practice seemed pointless.

“What should we do?” Yuuri asked, looking between Rin and Makoto, believing that they would have the answer.

Makoto thought. “Let’s wrap up and go to Haru’s place to wait. Once they’re done at the hospital, they’ll probably go there anyway,” he said.


	19. Taking Risks

“Will he be okay?” Phichit wondered. They were all sitting at Haruka’s place. They had been in there for a while. From the time when they had left the pool at Iwatobi High School and until now, no one had said a single word. Phichit was the one to gather up the courage to break the slightly uncomfortable silence that had been created.

“I wonder about that too,” Yuuri said.

“He’ll be fine, it didn’t look so bad,” Viktor said in an attempt to lighten the worry for everyone. However, this was probably the wrong move seeing as it only earned him a glare from Rin

“Nagisa be fine,” Makoto said in English. “Haru would have told if not. Problem is recover.”

“Are you trying to make sense?” Rin asked in Japanese.

Makoto sighed. He had been too absorbed in his own worries and concerns to really think through what he was trying to say, it seemed harder to have the English make sense than usual.

“You know, both Katsuki and I can translate if you need it,” Rin said.

Makoto looked at Rin. “You haven’t offered to do it except that one time when you lost patience with Haru,” he said.

“So what? I just realized that I might be able to communicate more with everyone if I translate for you guys,” Rin argued.

Makoto smiled. It was an obvious lie. Rin was just showing his helpful side. He had been doing that a little over the past two weeks, but he hadn’t made it this obvious.

However, Rin’s help wasn’t needed for the next hour or so because every hint of conversation died down and everyone fell back into the silence that had dominated before. At one point, Yuuri got up and got some water for everyone, and the silence was broken by small gestures of gratitude, but aside from that, no one said a word until the front door was opened and they could hear the sound of two people entering the house.

Rin and Makoto stood up as they heard the two entering, and they went to the door to the entrée to see who was coming in. They both quickly returned, leaving the door open for Rei and Haruka who both came in and sat down by the table along with everyone else.

“How is Nagisa?” Makoto asked.

“He is fine,” Haruka answered. “He got a small wound in the forehead and was knocked out cold for a little while. He woke up in the ambulance.”

“He went home with his parents at the same time as we left,” Rei continued.

Yuuri got busy translating everything Haruka and Rei had to say into English as the other figure skaters could understand.

“So, when will he be back?” Viktor asked.

“He was ordered to stay at home and rest for the next two days and he still needs to be careful with head movements for the next week or so,” Rei said.

“It doesn’t sound so bad,” Viktor concluded after Yuuri had translated Rei’s answer.

“Did you even listen to my translation?” Yuuri asked in a reproachful tone.

“I listened,” Viktor said, smiling at Yuuri. ”But it could have been a lot worse, don’t you think?”

Yuuri had to agree with that. All of them had to agree actually. There was no question that the situation could have been a lot worse. In fact the outcome of the situation was almost unrealistically lucky. If Nagisa had gotten a concussion, he wouldn’t have been able to come back to the project at all. Now at least there was a chance he might come back once he had rested up.

“We will need a substitute then,” Viktor said after some time. “Someone who is likely to be even to Nagisa in height and weight.”

“Can’t Yuri just do it?” Phichit asked.

“No way!” Yuri exclaimed. “I’m being lifted around enough as is!”

“Does it need to be precise?” Rin asked.

“Not exactly, why?” Viktor asked.

“As I see it, Chulanont might be the best candidate,” Rin answered. “But Altin is most on pare with Nagisa when it comes to height.”

“I’m lifting Yuri,” Otabek argued.

“Phichit-kun, would you mind taking over for Hazuki-kun?” Yuuri asked.

Phichit smiled. “Nope. I can act as Nagisa’s substitute until he returns,” he said.

“But… it’s risky. We shall not do lifts,” Makoto said in English.

“I agree it’s risky,” Viktor said. “But I’m not going to cut out the lifts. What happened today was an accident, but If we just don’t do the Throw Lift, I’m sure this is not gonna happen again.”

“He’s right. What happened was Nagisa’s fault anyway,” JJ said.

“JJ, it’s not nice to blame Nagisa for-“ Yuuri began protesting but Haruka cut him off.

“He is right,” he said in Japanese. “What happened was all Nagisa’s fault.”

Yuuri wondered why Haruka wasn’t defending his own friend, but let it slide. He also did understand that Haruka was right, but even so, anyone would defend their friends, wouldn’t they?

“Anyway, now everything seems to have been settled,” Rin said as he stood up. “Haru, can I borrow your bathtub?” he asked.

“Go ahead,” Haruka just answered.

Rin thanked him quickly and left the room, leaving the others in silence. However, he hadn’t been gone for long before everyone started talking. It all began with Yuuri and Phichit who started talking about the time when they were skating together in Detroit. Then the subject changed to skating in general and Viktor and JJ joined in on the conversation

“I miss skating a bit though,” Yuuri suddenly said.

“Me too,” Phichit agreed and then looked to JJ. “Don’t you miss it too?” he asked.

“Of course. I haven’t been away from a rink for this long.” JJ said. “What about you, Yuri and Otabek?”

“It would be nice to get back in the rink soon,” Yuri said. Otabek only showed his agreement by a nod.

“Then, how about I find a rink and all of us go skating?” Viktor said.

“All of us?” Yuuri asked. “The swimmers too?”

“Why not?” Viktor asked, turning to Makoto, Haruka and Rei. “Do you want to go skating with us before we leave?” he asked.

Rei was the first to understand the question and the first to answer. “I’m not sure… I have never skated before.”

Once Yuuri had translated the question for Haruka and Makoto, the latter also gave his reply.

“It sounds like it could be fun, and a change of pace. I’m up for it. How about you, Haru?” he asked.

Haruka only nodded his head in response as they heard the sound of Rin walking down the stairs. He wore a slightly frustrated expression on his face as he reentered the room.

“Rin, would you like to go skating with us before we leave?” Viktor asked.

“Sure,” Rin replied in such a way that it could be questioned if he was just answering on reflex or if he actually meant the reply. He turned to Haruka. “Haru, why do you have sheets lying beside your bathtub?” he asked.

“Sheets?” Makoto asked. “Rin are you serious?” he asked.

“There were sheets lying beside the bathtub, they were folded. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone was sleeping in the bathtub at night,” Rin said, looking at Haruka.

Makoto and Yuuri both did the same as Rin, but Haruka picked that moment to drink some water from one of the glasses on the table, making sure the lower half of his face was mostly covered. His gaze was also focused on the water in the glass rather than the three pairs of eyes staring at him.

Makoto reached out and took the glass out of Haruka’s hand, moving it from his face and also forcing Haruka to look at him by the same movement.

“Quit using your guests as an excuse for sleeping in your bathtub. It’s not healthy. You’ll catch a cold!” Makoto said in that tone that made Haruka think he was worrying way too much about a way too meaningless thing.

Rin just shook his head. “Now that issue is gonna be solved and we can move on.”


	20. Return

Somehow, practice the following day seemed a bit more boring than usual. Swimmers and figure skaters alike were keeping their focus and concentration in check during the routine. All in all, the entire day was exceptionally eventless compared to how the past two weeks had gone by.

The only memorable thing to happen was when everyone else broke the Plank Lift before Yuri was ready for it and he dropped down and accidentally swallowed a mouthful of water, causing some amusement to spread.

Yuri just spat into the pool in an attempt at getting some of the water out and then sent the ones who dared to feel amused, an irritated look.

“Just because that other one isn’t hear, doesn’t mean you have to laugh at me,” Yuri said, causing the amusement to stop spreading amongst the others.

Everyone walked back to themselves that day, feeling a little less cheerful than usual. Yuuri even thought there was something a bit less cheerfulness to the sound of Haruka cooking in the kitchen that night.

“And it’s going to be another day like this?” Phichit muttered in an exhausted tone.

“We will just have to try and brighten up everything tomorrow,” Yuuri replied.

 

But it didn’t end like that. To begin with, it looked like practice would just end up becoming the same boring scenario as what they had experienced yesterday, but at noon, while the sun was high in the sky, someone came rushing to the area, causing the mood to change completely.

“Sorry I’m this late!” Nagisa yelled as he turned the corner. At that moment, they were in the middle of the first Stack Lift with Phichit in Nagisa’s place.

“Na-Nagisa?” Phichit asked.

The Stack Lift broke slowly and everyone’s heads popped out of the water. Viktor turned around. They were now all staring at Nagisa, who looked back at them with a smile on his face. He had a small bandage wrapped around his head, covering the small wound in the forehead. If there was anything else covering the wound, no one could tell because Nagisa’s bangs were hanging down, completely covering the spot.

“I thought Rei said you weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow,” Makoto said, sending Rei a questioning look.

“I did say that. That’s what I heard,” Rei said.

“Rei-chan’s right, but I snuck out from at home. It was boring there,” Nagisa said. “I’d rather be with all of you.”

“Well, it’s not very eventful here,” Rin said.

“Go home, Nagisa,” Haruka said.

“But I just got here!” the other complained.

“Haru’s right though,” Makoto said. “Going out too soon might just worsen your concussion. You should have stayed at home.”

Nagisa pouted, a sad expression appearing on his face. He had at least hoped the others would be happy to see him instead of just telling him that he should go back home right away.

“Sorry!” Makoto apologized.

“He’s stupid,” Yuri muttered. “Everybody knows you’re not supposed to go against doctor’s orders when recovering from an injury.”

“I highly doubt you would listen to your doctor though, Yuri,” Viktor said, smiling.

Yuri frowned, not because Viktor had made a slightly rude assumption about him, but because the assumption was actually right. Of course he would want to get back in the rink as soon as possible.

“Well,” Phichit started speaking. “If Nagisa has to go home, wouldn’t it be worsening his condition as well? Why don’t we let him stay? He can watch the sky and listen to us practice, then Rei can walk him home?” he suggested.

Nagisa’s face brightened up from those words and he smiled gratefully at Phichit. He knew if an idea like that had come out of his mouth, it would’ve probably been dismissed right away as a bad excuse for staying, but since it was Phichit who suggested it, the others might listen.

“I don’t see a problem with that idea,” Viktor said.

“Are you just trying to satisfy him?” Rin asked Phichit while Makoto asked Yuuri to translate the suggestion.

“You do know that I’m not completely wrong though,” Phichit said, smiling.

“He’s right,” JJ said. “It might not be the worst of ideas.”

Makoto nodded his head as Yuuri finished translating for him and Haruka.

“Good idea, Chulanont-san,” Makoto said in English.

“So, Nagisa stays,” Rin declared, causing Nagisa to look at him and smile. “But he can’t watch us practice, only listen.”

Nagisa nodded his head, seeming satisfied with the result. “I’ll go lie down then,” he said before he went to find a towel and laid it out on the ground. He then lied down on it. “You gonna continue?” he asked as he was lying down and looking up at the blue sky.

“Viktor, where would you like us to start from?” Yuuri asked.

“The same place,” Viktor said. “Just before the first Stack Lift.”

They resumed practicing the routine, primarily focusing on the parts involving lifts since everyone was finding them a bit more difficult than the other parts of the routine. Nagisa continuously shot small comments at them, both in Japanese and in English.

However, despite the mood having been lightened a bit, everyone was still slightly conscious of Nagisa’s presence, and therefore practice ended earlier than usual.

 

“You should stay at home tomorrow,” Rei told Nagisa as the two of them went home together, side by side. Everyone else had also gone their separate ways.

“But it’s boring at home,” Nagisa said. “My parents aren’t letting me do anything.”

“They’re concerned of you. We all are,” Rei said.

“I know that,” Nagisa replied, he really did know, but that didn’t make it any less boring to stay home in bed.

“Then do as I say and stay at home,” Rei said.

Nagisa sighed. “I don’t want to. It’s too hot and too lonely being back there. I keep imagining what kinds of fun you guys may have that I’m not a part of.”

Rei couldn’t help but smile slightly at that. “You’re not missing out on anything. In fact, it’s like everything is a bit more boring while you’re not there,” he said.

Nagisa looked up. “Then, shouldn’t I come?” he asked.

“No,” Rei said. “Stay at home tomorrow too. You can come watch us on the day after that. It might be the best solution if you want to get back as soon as possible.”

Nagisa looked down then. “Okay, Rei-chan. If you promise to come visit afterwards.”

“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for you to have visitors,” Rei said.

“Then I’m coming,” Nagisa said, stubbornly.

Rei sighed. Nagisa was trying to start an argument because he wasn’t getting what he wanted. This was an argument Rei didn’t want to take because he knew he would lose. Besides, Nagisa had already given in some, agreeing to stay at home tomorrow. Maybe he could get permission to go see him, at least he could try. If he got a no, it wasn’t his fault.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll come see you tomorrow if you promise to stay at home.”

“Then I’ll stay at home as I can come back as soon as possible,” Nagisa replied, smiling at Rei as they continued on their way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should seriously consider not forgetting to update the story anymore. There are so few chapters left, but I could have finished it by now if I hadn't kept on forgetting to update. This chapter was supposed to be uploaded yesterday, but I didn't remember until I woke up this morning. (What's wrong with me). It's not like I'm all that busy studying up for my final exams. I am just really forgetful. There will be an end to this soon though, I hope, but this story won't live to see it. This is the 20th chapter, so there are only three left. I hope you've enjoyed this until now and will keep reading the last three chapters, even if the pacing is shit and my motivation for writing the past two chapters and the upcoming one was just as shitty. 
> 
> Thank you for the support of this story. 
> 
> Jackie


	21. Figure Swimming

Nagisa kept his promise to Rei and stayed at home on the following day and Rei kept his promise to Nagisa and came by to visit. He even convinced Nagisa to take another day at home. In exchange, he would come by with one more person on the following day.

Once asked, Phichit was more than happy to go, and so he went with Rei the following afternoon to visit Nagisa. They had a fun time talking. Nagisa’s mother even came in and suggested that she would start bragging about her son having a Thai figure skater visiting him.

“I thought you said figure skating wasn’t that big in Japan?” Phichit asked Nagisa.

“My mother has just become an even bigger fan since we met in Hasetsu,” Nagisa said. “Most people here don’t even know the name of the Japanese competitors.”

“Like you didn’t know Yuuri until I told you about him?” Phichit asked.

“Yeah,” Rei said. “Though, I’m surprised that I hadn’t developed an interest in figure skating. It is really beautiful to look at.”

“I’m surprised about that too, Rei-chan,” Nagisa said. “But I’m glad I managed to introduce you to swimming first, and that you saw Haru-chan swim.”

“Well, it might be that any sport looks beautiful if you just know how to practice it,” Phichit said. “There are worse figure skaters back in Thailand and their movements don’t look as elegant as what I see on the international level.”

They talked more about figure skating and Rei informed Nagisa of their plans of going to a skating rink to do some figure skating. Everyone had agreed to it and they were in the process of setting the date. Nagisa was eager to go, but he wanted it to be as late as possible, as he could participate as well. What he was allowed to do was very limited.

 

Luckily for Nagisa, another limit was taken away the following day. He was allowed to leave the house and go and watch everyone practice by the pool. Everyone was happy for his return and now it wouldn’t be long before he could join them in their practice again.

Three days went by with Nagisa on the sidelines. On the final of those days, he did some physical exorcises on his own to ensure that he could partake at full strength on the following day.

By that time, everyone had almost gotten the entire routine down. To reincorporate Nagisa wasn’t so difficult.

“So, when are we done?” Rin asked in English as they were reaching the middle of the afternoon of Nagisa’s first day back in the water.

“In two hours,” Viktor replied with a smile. He knew that the question could be meant in two ways but he decided to reply to the more obvious interpretation.

“That’s not what I meant,” Rin made an irritated frown.

“I’d like to know too,” Yuuri said. “Are we going to perform this or something, and when?” he asked.

“In a little less than a week,” Viktor said. “I think six days. We are going to perform, I don’t know who will be in the audience yet though. Haruka and I agreed to time it so that it is the day before we go skating,” he explained.

Haruka nodded his head to confirm that.

“Haru-chan, you’re communicating with Vik-chan?” Nagisa asked in Japanese.

“He has gotten good at communicating with all of us,” JJ said in English while wrapping an arm around Haruka’s shoulders and smiled at everyone while Haruka looked the opposite way.

“He is still not talking though,” Yuri said.

“Well, Otabek isn’t talking either,” Rin said.

Yuri looked at Otabek with eyes that asked if he had said something offensive, the older boy simply smiled briefly, letting the younger know that he hadn’t taken offense.

“Anyways, let’s do this one more time,” Viktor said, and they did it once more.

Despite the fact that they had practiced hard and were hardly ever making any mistakes anymore, a few still occurred from time to time. This time, when they practiced the routine, another one occurred. This was the most unusual so far, and the most hilarious.

What happened was that Yuuri had been a little slow when it came to swimming to his place to the next formation. Haruka had seen that and needed to slow down to prevent them from colliding. The problem was that he was by the spot where Rin was supposed to be, and Rin hadn’t seen him stopping. So when he stood up, he accidentally got one of Haruka’s legs on either shoulder, and the other ended up sitting there, without Rin noticing anything but a little extra weight.

This accident caused everyone else to need to do their best not to laugh as they saw it. JJ, Nagisa, Viktor and Phichit laughed out loud about it, Yuri tried not to laugh, Otabek smiled and Yuuri, Makoto and Rei tried to keep it in, but none of them could manage that in the long run.

“Oi, Rin,” Haruka said.

That was when Rin realized what was going on and dove under the surface as they could separate themselves from each other. When they resurfaced, the others were still laughing.

Rin quickly apologized for what had happened and Haruka shrugged it off, but both of them were very eager to get back to practice and have the others forget about what had happened. Sadly, Yuuri never realized that he was actually the cause of that and therefore never apologized.

 

The errors became an absolute minimum on the day before they were to perform. None of the swimmers or figure skaters, who weren’t named Viktor, knew who would come watch them perform. Viktor had been the one to invite everyone and he had been very secretive about it. Not even Yuuri had a clue.

The suspense was released on the following day. The performers had arrived first and were warming up as a large number of people came. Nagisa’s parents and sisters were there, so were Rei’s parents, Makoto’s parents and younger siblings, and Rin’s mother and even Gou had shown up. Aside from that, Viktor had managed to convince Yuuri’s family and most of his friends from Hasetsu to make the trip. He had also been out and charmed a lot of other people into coming over and have a look. It turned out that no one knew the majority of the ones who had shown up.

“I can’t believe Gou is seeing this,” Rin said.

“I don’t think she’s gonna mind,” Makoto replied. “Regarding me, Haru and the others, she might actually be pleased that we have added more to our physical ability,” he said.

“Why are you so positive?” Rin wondered.

Makoto didn’t know how to answer that question, so he just smiled at Rin.

Now Viktor introduced the entire project, where it had started and how it had been. He spoke of ups and downs, of communication and difficulties and of the bond of friendship that had developed between swimmers and figure skaters. Then he briefly introduced the theme and the music before the ten performers jumped into the pool and got into the starting position. Then Viktor turned on the music.

While the ten young men were performing, they all thought back on how it had started. How Nagisa had gotten a good idea which he had shared with Phichit, who had introduced it to Yuuri and Viktor. They had then gotten busy gathering people for the project and at the beginning of August, there had been six figure skaters at Iwatobi Station. They had then gotten busy practicing, first they had learned the basics and understood who worked well together and who absolutely didn’t work well. They had also had to overcome the barrier of communication. They had been taught the lifts and the routine and then Nagisa had fallen from a lift and been out. Now he was back, being lifted above the surface by Rei and the rest of his teammates. The communication was working and everyone had actually come to make some friends within the opposite the group. It had all ended up with this, the great combination of figure skating and swimming, which was commonly known as Synchronized swimming.

“We did it!” Nagisa exclaimed once they were completely done with the routine. “We managed to pull off the Figure Swimming!”

“It’s still called synchronized swimming,” Rei muttered, but he didn’t say it out loud. He knew that Nagisa knew, but just didn’t care. No one cared anymore anyway. It had now become a common acceptance. Others may call what they did synchronized swimming, but they called it Figure Swimming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys haven't guessed from previous works, or just this chapter, I'd like to admit that I ship RinHaru an awful lot. In Free! that's still my OTP. Just so you know that anything that can be interpreted as RinHaru, is probably meant to be.   
> Thanks for reading. 
> 
> Jackie


	22. Swimmers on Ice

For what felt like the first time in forever, no one wore a swimsuit underneath their clothes as they arrived at the skating rink, not even Haruka. He informed of this when Rin jokingly asked him what he was wearing under his clothes.

By the use of his charm and some money, Viktor had gotten permission for them to use the rink privately as no one would interrupt their fun. They were currently making their way to the rink after putting on their skates.

“Anyone who wants to go first?” Yuuri asked in English, thinking that the other figure skaters would be just as eager to go as he was.

JJ quickly made his way to the opening into the rink. He was first on the ice, quickly followed by Phichit and Yuri, who waved for Otabek to come along. In the end, Yuuri and Viktor were the only ones standing back with the five swimmers, simply watching as the remaining four figure skaters were having fun on the ice, enjoying the fact that they had returned to their right element.

“Watching that, I feel a little anxious,” Makoto said. “I couldn’t do stuff like that.”

“No one expects you to pull off the same as we do,” Yuuri replied in Japanese. “Just focus on finding your balance out there, have some fun. It’s just for a change of pace.”

“I like the idea,” Nagisa said as he made his way out on the ice. He skated a bit away from the entrance and was about to fall, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Rei had been quick to follow, he might have hit his head again, but now he fell into Rei and they both ended up sitting on the ice, Nagisa in between Rei’s spread legs.

“Be careful, Nagisa, Rei,” Phichit said, smiling as he skated up to the two, reaching both his hands down to help them back on their skates.

“Nanase-kun, Tachibana-kun, Matsuoka-kun, have you skated before?” Yuuri asked.

“Haru and I haven’t skated before, actually,” Makoto said. “We haven’t really had the need for it either, so it’s not like we feel like we’ve been missing out on it or anything,” he continued.

“Well, I went skating once in Australia,” Rin said. “On one of the days when I didn’t need to swim, those taking care of me took me to a rink. It was fun,” Rin smiled as he was thinking back on it.

“Then get out there,” Viktor encouraged.

“I should,” Rin agreed, getting out on the ice. He made his way up to where the other figure skaters were standing. Nagisa and Rei were with them, clinging to each other to keep themselves on their skates. As Rin skated, he looked almost as secure in his movements as the figure skaters.

“Well, we should get going too, right Haru?” Makoto asked.

Haruka nodded his head and followed Makoto onto the ice with a hint of reluctance on his face. He already missed the pool and somewhat wished that the ice in the rink would liquefy as he could get to swim in it.

Viktor and Yuuri went on the ice as the last ones and skated up to the others. As they were skating, Viktor reached out and grabbed Yuuri’s hand, holding it tightly. As Yuuri looked, Viktor just smiled at him and all the other figure skaters started smiling too. The smiles that were starting to break out, caused all the swimmers to look at Yuuri and Viktor. Surprise broke out on Rin’s, Makoto’s, Rei’s and Nagisa’s faces as they saw the skater and coach holding hands.

“What? Are you two…?” Makoto asked in Japanese, unable to get the words over his lips.

“What… I mean… what?” Rin asked, unable to comprehend what he was seeing completely.

“Yuu-chan and Vik-chan are going out?” Nagisa asked.

“Wait what?” Rei exclaimed.

“Haven’t you noticed?” Phichit asked. “They’re actually engaged.”

Yuuri blushed at that. He hadn’t wanted Phichit to spill that last detail. It only became even more awkward that the act had come so naturally to him and the fact that the swimmers had responded in shock. Everybody else knew of their engagement.

“It’s not that surprising,” Haruka muttered as he looked between Yuuri and Viktor and his surprised friends. “They shared a bed for four weeks and act like a couple more often than not.”

“It’s not that obvious is it?” Yuuri asked, concerned.

“Haru’s just good at spotting things,” Makoto said. “The rest of us didn’t notice,” he was back to smiling now and the surprised reaction seemed to have died down. The mood had gone back to being completely relaxed, like it had been since yesterday among the group of swimmers and figure skaters.

“Anyways,” Phichit said, speaking English. “Let’s have some fun!” He started skating away while singing the song he used for his short program.

Yuri and Otabek started skating away together. Rei and Nagisa were still clinging to each other as they slowly moved. Nagisa was laughing while they did and Makoto laughed too, until he slipped and fell on the ice. Rin sighed and skated away, not wanting to deal with his friends’ lack in ability to skate. He went to skate with Yuri and Otabek for a little while. JJ went to help Makoto get back on his feet and through simplified communication he instructed the Japanese boy in how to sustain his balance on the skates. Viktor dragged Yuuri into his own little world. They had only had little time to act as a couple for the past month and he really wanted to focus all his attention on Yuuri for a time.

Phichit came back after a while, deciding that helping JJ in teaching Makoto how to skate was a really good idea. In the meantime, Nagisa and Rei were teaching each other how to skate.

“Okay, Rei-chan, I’m going to let go now,” Nagisa said after a while.

“Hold on! No, wait!” Rei exclaimed, terrified that he was going to fall if Nagisa let go. But the other was too quick to act and had already separated himself from Rei. It turned out that they were both still standing, to Nagisa’s amusement and Rei’s embarrassment.

“Idiots,” Yuri commented as he skated past with Otabek by his side. Rin was slowly making his way away from them. He had realized that he was unable to keep up with them and didn’t really feel like he was fitting in so well with them. They just wanted to be the two of them anyway. But now he had spotted Haruka who was sitting by the entrance to the rink, one palm resting on the ice while he was looking down at it with sorrowful eyes.

“You can’t just melt it by touching it like that,” Rin said as he stopped in front of Haruka.

Haruka nodded his head, knowing that Rin was right. That wasn’t what he wanted. The feel of the little water that came from the heat of his hand melting some of the ice was enough.

Rin sighed. He turned slightly away from Haruka but still looked down at him. “Get up,” he said in a slightly demanding tone. “I’ll teach you how to skate,” he said.

Haruka sighed. He didn’t need to learn how to skate, yet he got up, swaying as he struggled to keep his balance. If Rin wanted to teach him to do this so badly, then there was no point in begging for it.

So Rin got to attempt at teaching Haruka how to skate, but Haruka kept slipping on the ice every time Rin let go, it was almost pathetic to watch.

“Would you stop falling all the time!?” Rin yelled.

 “It’s not like I mean to,” Haruka answered. “This kind of water just doesn’t like me.”

“Would you stop speaking nonsense!?” Rin yelled.

“When do you think those two are going to start going out?” Viktor asked Yuuri as he watched Rin and Haruka skate out of the corner of his eye.

“I thought you were only going to pay attention to me while we were here,” Yuuri said, skating a tiny bit closer to Viktor before stopping. He had been in the middle of practicing a difficult part of a program.

“Are you jealous Yuuri?” Viktor asked, tilting his head at the unusual response.

 “No,” Yuuri said, though he wasn’t entirely sure if that was true or not.

Viktor just smiled, knowing fully well that his partner was just a little jealous, though he was too nice to say it openly.

They all had a really good time while skating, and they ended up staying on the ice for about an hour. Then all the swimmers were physically exhausted and went to sit on the sidelines while Phichit decided that the other figure skaters would put on a small show. That show ended up only consisting of him, JJ, Viktor and Yuuri, the last one because he was dragged into it. Yuri and Otabek decided to leave the rink then, not wanting to take part in something so stupid. After that, they all left the place, and as if they hadn’t had cold enough, they decided to go out for ice cream to finish the day off.


	23. Back to Normal

It was a busy morning at Haruka’s house. The owner of the house had been up at around six in the morning, waking up all his guests to ensure that they had enough time to prepare for what was to come a little later that same day, just around noon.

Viktor was first to get up and first to finish packing up everything completely. It seemed like he still had plenty of energy left in his body. He was also in a good mood that day, this showed when he told Haruka not to wake up Yuuri, who was still sleeping peacefully in the bed.

The next one to get out of bed was Phichit, who was all sunshine as usual. Not even the slap he received from trying to wake up the Russian boy could wipe off his smile. The Thai boy simply concluded that this boy probably would be fine sleeping for a bit longer.

Otabek had already woken on his own as Haruka had entered the living room and was quietly getting himself dressed and packing up, pretending that nothing else was going on in the room.

When JJ woke up, he was in a slightly bad mood, but when he came downstairs around twenty minutes later with all his luggage, he was nearly sparkling. And with JJ’s sparkles and Phichit’s sun, the lower floor of the house was almost blindingly bright.

Haruka was standing in the kitchen, preparing some food when Viktor and Yuuri came down a little later. The Russian man had taken the time to wake Yuuri up after he had finished doing everything himself, and he had even been kind enough to help Yuuri pack his stuff. Now the only one who was still sleeping was Yuri, whom Viktor simply went to drag out of bed under loud protests from said boy.

Haruka simply tuned all of them out while he was still cooking. Most of the time, the figure skaters in his house had been extremely noisy. It had been strange with so much noise within his house the first week, but now, he might actually find it strange when the noise would be all gone for good in a matter of hours.

Breakfast was quickly over with, and then all the figure skaters grabbed their luggage and went out the front door. Haruka exited his house as the last one and closed and locked the door behind himself. He then led the way down the stairs.

Half way down the stairs, they could see someone standing and waiting for them.

“Makoto’s come out too!” Phichit said, sounding both surprised and happy.

“You sure that’s his name?” JJ said in a slightly teasing tone.

Phichit thought. “Nah, I still think his name is Tottoro.” He smiled, remembering how they had struggled to remember all the Japanese names in the beginning.

“You guys really should stop that,” Yuuri said.

They reached the place where Makoto was standing and waiting and the tall boy greeted them in his best English, though he was still speaking with a thick accent.

As they walked on, Makoto fell in beside Yuri to walk with him and Otabek. None of them said anything at first, but then Makoto broke the silence.

“How has it been?” he asked  Yuri in English.

Yuri thought on that. “I could’ve been doing something better, but it wasn’t all that bad,” he said.

Makoto took some time translating what Yuri was saying into Japanese before he spoke. “I’m glad you... liked it? It was fun I thought.”

“You seem to have learned something too,” Yuri commented. “I can understand what you’re saying now.”

If Makoto hadn’t known better, he would have wondered if this was an insult or a compliment, but since he had come to understand what kind of person Yuri was, he knew it was meant as a compliment and therefore he just smiled, not saying another word.

As the group reached Iwatobi Station, there were three more standing under the shade of a nearby tree, waiting. Nagisa was standing in the middle with Rin and Rei on either side of him. The blonde boy waved as the group approached them.

“Hey everyone!” Nagisa exclaimed as the group was still on its way.

“Good morning, Nagisa!” Makoto was the first to respond the wave and reply before the group reached the three people under the tree.

“You’re still in due time,” Rei informed after checking his watch. “There is still more than half an hour until the train departs.”

“All the more time to say goodbye then,” Viktor answered.

“Half an hour still isn’t that much time though,” Phichit said. “I actually liked it here.”

“You can stay-“ Nagisa almost said but he was interrupted by Haruka.

“No,” sounded the strict answer.

“But Haru-chan,” Nagisa whined, turning to Haruka to cling to him in an attempt at begging.

“Seems like Haru has had enough of this,” Rin said in English, keeping his tone amused.

“It’s not funny,” Haruka turned away, feeling slightly irritated with Rin.

“Hold on, you understand English?” Yuuri asked Haruka in Japanese.

“Some,” the other replied.

As they all waited for the train to come, they made sure to keep all conversations lively, which went exceptionally well. A mess caused by the sound from Japanese and English mixing together created a lot of noise that had the people passing by turn and stare at the group.

It all died down when Nagisa remembered that he had gotten a camera with him and pulled it up, yelling to get everyone’s attention. He wanted a group photo before the figure skaters left.

Two photos were taken. Viktor took the first one where they all, on Yuuri’s suggestion, tried to stand properly like they were lining up for a class photo, the shorter ones in front and the taller ones in the back. The second one was taken by a lady whom Viktor managed to stop as she was passing by. This meant that he could be in the photo too. He placed himself in the center of the back and placed Yuuri beside him, grabbing his hand tightly. Nagisa sat down with Phichit, right in front of Viktor as the three of them made out the center of the photo. Everyone else either stood or sat around them in any way they liked. This caused the second picture to become much more lively than the first one.

The lady only managed to hand Nagisa the camera back before Rei checked his watch and they realized that there were only ten minutes until the train would depart from the station. They hurried there to ensure that the figure skaters weren’t going to miss it, and this was where the two groups said the final goodbyes to one another and parted ways. It was now time for all of them to go back to their normal lives and routines. Now they had had an entire summer off where they had only been focusing on one thing, that thing being the mix between swimming and figure skating, Figure Swimming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheesy way to end it. I know. But it was better than the other half-assed ending I had written. I'm glad my editor told me her opinion on the former one as I could open my eyes and see that she was right.   
> Well, that does it for this time. Thanks for reading my story until this point. Thanks to everyone who followed, subscribed, commented and/or left kudos. It's all much appreciated, and also a huge thanks to everyone who stuck around until the end. It will be a while before you hear from me again.   
> I tell this just because I want to hear your opinion, after reading this. I wrote an original story which I might be publishing on a site for that. If anyone of you have any good advice, any thoughts on my writing in general or just things that are good to keep in mind for original stories, please let me know. I'm really nervous about it Nd I've already been hesitating for two weeks now.   
> Anyways, thanks for everything this time. 
> 
> Jackie

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a little while, hasn't it? I'm not about to dive into the hype that has been around YOI if that's what anyone thinks. I just don't find it to be that bad and so my friend and I got the idea of this crossover and yeah... That's nearly four months ago now. This has taken way too long. I was actually planning on publishing it last week, but 1) I forgot and 2) I needed to fix the ending.   
> Publishing might be a bit slower than usual. Those who have read my works before, while I was publishing, will know that I normally post one chapter per day. However, since I'm graduating from high school in a little less than two months and finals are coming up, I'm studying like crazy (or at least it feels that way) and therefore I might not have that room in my head to remember to publish. I've been so forgetful lately.   
> Enough for now. Just thank you for reading the first chapter and I hope you'll stay around to read the ones to come. 
> 
> Jackie


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